How to Find the Motivation to Keep Going When You’re Feeling Stuck

In this episode of MarieTV, we do have some adult language. So if you do have little ones around, grab your headphones now.

Marie Forleo: It has to be important to your heart, it should be important to your mission, it should be important to your bank account.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and welcome to another episode of MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast. And today we are tackling a fantastic question from Lori.

Lori: Hi Marie. My name is Lori. First of all, I love you so much. You inspire me so much. My question is, how do you, when you’re feeling stuck, how do you move through that? Right now I know there’s so many things I want to do. I’m a therapist. I want to get into more coaching stuff. I just got trained in coaching certification, but I just feel very unmotivated and stuck. And I know a lot of it has to do with this COVID time, but it’s just really hard to move past that stuckness. And so I want to know, how do you stay motivated? How do you move past that stuckness when, when it’s really hard? I would love to hear that answer from you because that’s kind of how I’m feeling right now. I’m just not the person who I want to be. And I would just love to hear some advice from you around that. Okay. Again, love you so much. You are the best. I bought your book, Everything is Figureoutable. You’re amazing. Okay. Bye.

Marie Forleo: Lori, first of all, I want to say how much we love you. Seriously, myself, my team, we saw your video and our hearts just exploded. And I know you mentioned that you’re not being the person right now that you most want to be, but I want to reflect back to you a few things before we get to the answer. You are someone who is kind and energetic and loving and wants to contribute. So I know that your mind may be saying a bunch of things like, “You’re not where you’re supposed to be right now, or you’re really stuck and you’re unmotivated,” but I also want to root you in the fact of how amazing you are in this moment. That is who you are as a being and we want to start from that foundation because from that place, real magic can happen.

Okay, now let’s get into the answer. So you talked about a few things and you asked me, “How do I stay motivated? Especially after things have been really difficult and we’re kind of still in this COVID stage.” So I want to talk through some things that are both important to me, but as a coach, I want to give you specific advice from what I picked up from your question and your vibe.

So first thing is self-care first. It has been a really difficult time and it has been a really difficult year and that stress can take a toll. So one of the keys for me to stay consistently motivated is to make sure that I’m doing the simple things that make the biggest difference in terms of my energy, my health, and my cognitive prowess. What does that mean? Meditation is a must for me every single day. We’ve talked about this in the past. We even have an episode about my personal practice and we have a free little download if you want to take advantage of that. We’ll put it both in the video and we’ll put it in the description below.

Exercise. I’ve talked about this so many times in the show because it is one of my favorite ways to make sure that I stay energized. It’s one of the things that I do to make sure that my brain is operating at top capacity and it’s just really fun. But there’s another element that I want to mention. Now, I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on the internet. However, I try and take really good care of my health. And one of the things that I’ve noticed and that I specifically went through recently, was just understanding and feeling like, “Wow, my energy isn’t where it normally is.” And you might remember that late last year I had a pretty major surgery, so there was a lot of recovery with that too. My point is this. Sometimes we get into a specific stage of life where things that we’re eating, things that we’re drinking, just ways that we’re living actually pull our energy down, make us more lethargic. And it makes it harder for our brain to feel energized, to be able to focus and concentrate.

So this is a book by my friend, Mark Hyman. It’s called, The Pegan Diet. I’m also reading another book by him that’s called, The UltraMind Solution. I would highly recommend that you check these out. If you have any suspicion that, you know what, maybe the things I’m putting in my body could be creating a little bit of stress in my gut or making me not feel so good. And I will tell you, it has made a tremendous difference in a short amount of time in terms of my self-care, my energy, my ability to focus and concentrate and have really high energy levels, which speaks into motivation and getting unstuck and getting things done.

Number two, and this one is the one I really wanted to say to you specifically, Lori. So ambiguity is the enemy of execution. You talked about being a therapist, you talked about getting your coaching certification. So here’s the deal my love, I need you to decide what is the one single project that you want to work on at this particular stage and season of your life, whether it’s for a month or the next quarter or the next six months, whatever the time frame is, and decide what that one thing is so we can get you moving on it.

Any time people come to me and say, “I don’t know, I just have so many things I might want to do.” I know that they haven’t decided the one thing that’s most important right now, and they have no plan to execute on it. So since you mentioned that you have this fantastic little book called, Everything is Figureoutable, I want to encourage you to go back to chapter six, which is, “Define Your Dream,” because not only do you need to define specifically what you want to work on at this particular time, you also need to have a stack of emotionally compelling reasons why that particular project is so important to you. So it has to be important to your heart. It should be important to your mission. It should be important to your bank account. There should be all kinds of reasons why this particular project, this milestone, or this goal has to be reached. And we need that to be very concrete and specific. So remember, ambiguity is the enemy of execution, my friend. So that is step two.

And now for step three. I highly recommend this. Most of the time people are just going like this, “I don’t know what I should do, I don’t know what I should focus on,” because they don’t have a deadline. Y’all, people, we need deadlines. They are awesome. I know sometimes it can create a little pressure and stress, but pressure and stress in small amounts, and when it’s directed at something important, are really helpful. They help us get things done. So once you decide what you really want to work on, what is that specific concrete goal, then we need a deadline. In my own life right now I’m creating something new that I am so excited about. And I have dates in the books for a few months ahead where we are shooting the thing I’m working on. So I’ve got a whole crew coming and I know exactly what’s going to happen. That’s a deadline that’s very real. I can’t wiggle out of it.

You know what else that does? It helps me keep things simple. So when other people are trying to tell me, “Hey, Marie, I want you to come do this, or come do this speaking engagement, or what about this particular project?” I’m like, “No. Hell to the no.” You know why? Because I have this clear, specific, important project that has a deadline, which gets me very motivated to get things done.

Lori, that was my A to your Q, and I really do hope it helps. Now I would love to hear from all of you. Were any of these insights that could help you get unstuck and stay motivated as you move ahead? If so, let me know.

Now as always, the best conversations happen over at the magical land of marieforleo.com. So get your sweet buns over there and leave a comment now. And if you’re not already, you need to become an MF Insider and join our email list. Why? Because every single Tuesday, we send out these inspiring, encouraging, action-oriented emails with videos just like this, to help you stay on track.

Until next time, stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world really does need that very special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for tuning in and I’ll catch you next time.

Hey! You having trouble bringing your dreams to life? Well guess what? The problem isn’t you. It’s not that you’re not hard-working, or intelligent, or deserving. It’s that you haven’t yet installed the one key belief that will change it all. Everything is Figureoutable. It’s my new book and you can order it now at EverythingisFigureoutable.com.