Staying Motivated in the Face of Uncertainty

February 2nd 2021

Keeping on your path even when the road ahead feels hopelessly unclear…

I have been hearing the phrase “these uncertain times” a lot within the past year and it has grown to be one of my least favorite phrases and one of the least comforting. You see, I find myself living in uncertain times quite a lot on a personal level, but now that uncertainty has expanded to a global level, stability seems to be a distant memory.

When I think back to a more certain time of my life, I think back to the days when I was somehow juggling everything I was passionate about in my life without second thoughts or concerns. I think about how not having to worry about “uncertainty” made it easy for me to continue pushing towards my goals because I had that “sky’s the limit” mentality and no clear roadblocks outside of my mindset.

But now, with so much happening both personally and in the world at large, I am finding it hard to stay motivated. Things that used to be fun and inspiring now seem frivolous. Take this blog, for example. When I started this site, I was really seeing my work pay off for a while. I had an engaged following, loved reading and interacting with other people on the platform and creating content that inspired people or at least made them think. Now, I am struggling to stay motivated to post 2 posts a week. I am not sure if it is the lack of engagement with my content or the fact that I haven’t been able to do a lot of the things I used to love blogging about or if it is just a general slump, but something is keeping me from being as motivated as I normally am.

And I don’t think the fire for blogging has gone out. Quite the contrary really. I really really want to be motivated to pick this up again and same with yoga! I would love to dive back into these things I was once so passionate about because they made me feel so secure and comforted and they were cathartic.

So, let’s get back to the title of this post. How do you stay motivated in the face of uncertainty. Well, to be blunt, you need to do it until you find yourself wanting to do it. I hate to use the term “force yourself” to do it, but sort of. Fake it ’til you make it and all that. Sometimes you won’t be motivated when the world feels like it is falling around you, but do it anyway.

I am starting with blogging. 2 posts a week until those posts because second nature then either upping the content or the production quality. Then I will move onto yoga. 2 days of practice a week until I slowly work myself into wanting to do it 5-7 days a week.

I think an important thing to consider is that uncertainty is a temporary state of being. I don’t think it is possible to be uncertain about everything forever. I think you eventually reach of homeostasis. Life levels out, things aren’t really certain or uncertain, they just are.

So, no, I don’t have this ultimate secret to motivation. But I do have the ability to say that you’re not alone in your unmotivated feelings. It won’t always be like this. Even if you have to push yourself to get back into your passions or what you know is best for you, it won’t last forever.

Right now, my 3 major motivation challenges are writing, fitness, and reading. These are 3 things I want to do more of and the first thing I need to do to get there is force myself little by little to build the habit.

The second thing to consider when looking for motivation in uncertainty is how you can find certainty in the uncertain times. For example, I know I cannot travel now due to COVID, but I have been able to take short trips to neighboring states and I know that people are struggling to find safe ways to have fun, so I can write about safe travel tips and activities for during the pandemic! I can’t go to a yoga studio now because of health and safety reasons, but I can tune back into Yoga with Adriene who got me into yoga in the first place and does a one more yoga workshop every January and has multiple years’ worth on Youtube. And there is literally no uncertainty around books. I can read whenever!

By just reminding myself that just because I am going to have to do things differently right now encourages me to not give up on stuff all together.

Lastly, the last thing you can do to stay motivated in the face of uncertainty is just be easy on yourself. Be gentle. Life is hard and confusing right now and it may still be hard and confusing even when things calm down at a global level. Just remember that motivation and inspiration don’t come from a place of stress and confusion. They come from a place of loving what you do and true passion.

What are your motivation projects?

Jess~