a Bee in my bonnet..is there a key to self-motivation?

[ShmokeRobins]

Hi all.
I'm having difficulty with motivation and procrastination. I'm a confident capable individual with a lot to offer and confident in myself to do tasks and challenges that arise in life. When I put my mind and effort to a task it generally gets done and done well.
The problem is lack of guidance and goals I assume. But how do I remedy this? (Develop wants) I'm in a fortunate position at the moment where if I so choose I could sleep,drink and eat aka do nothing productive/beneficial for the next few months.
A: give into the lazy dream
B: Not have any accountability
C: Have no inherent interest in anything other than my immediate surroundings and situation

I have a lot in common with the sloth species at the moment.
How do I get my ass in gear, find new job, interests and hobbies?
I realize this is a strange aul post but to be fair I'm in a strange aul position.

Is it ok to be happy doing nothing?

[elucidate]

Haha...I was happy doing nothing for a long time. I think it's actually an important life skill, which probably belongs in the "most unpopular opinions" thread in the fun section, but there it is.

Maybe you are in your "do nothing" phase as a way to incubate ( I like that word this week) new goals and ideas?

If you don't know what your goals are yet, then it makes no sense to try and motivate yourself towards them, does it?

I have taken to hypnotizing myself using mp3's for motivation and that really works, but I have my goals now, so that's the difference.

I say forcing yourself to be motivated when all you want is to do nothing for a while, will only lead you to be miserable. If doing nothing is what you want right now, then just give yourself permission to do that, and don't worry about whether the rest of the world thinks it's ok or not...because the truth is they don't think it's ok. Most people consider anyone who does nothing to be a "slacker hippy", but it can actually be a really good thing that can help you work a lot of stuff out and find what you really want to do.

[williamkwan]

It's hard to stay content for long without doing anything. Eventually, you'll reach a realization of how much of your life you've wasted, and by then you'll never be able to get that time back. You don't need to be ultra-productive to be happy, it's important to constantly grow and expand who we are, even you're doing it slowly.

I'm sure there are things you'd like in life. You don't need other people to tell you want you want, nor will it be very helpful. It's easy to forget about our desires when we think it'll take too much work or pain to achieve them. Commit to something, even if you're not sure of it, and take that first step.

[CoolBee]

I am in a similar position to you (I'm living a relaxed comfortable life without working full-time).
After the first few weeks of daily laziness, I started to find getting to sundown without being able to point to anything I had achieved during the day stressful. Other folk around me couldn't believe it! How can not doing anything be stressful! (Without financial worry I should add!)

I don't know how long or what reason you have for being in your situation, but if you are in that kind of state right now but don't know what your goals might be, here is exactly what I did: Here's a LONG blog article I wrote on what I did I've been drifting to get out of that. I find this approach works for me, to reboot my system when I start feeling that I'm drifting!

Another technique that works for me is paying money LOL. I want to get my business up and running but have been lazy with that. A week or so ago I paid good money to a UK-based outfit to get me doing that 'with accountability'. So far, there's very little new to me in what they've produced (I mean their videos, guides etc) BUT the difference IS I paid money so I'm doing it! (This also worked 30 years ago when I learned to touch-type. When I was doing classes at school or freebies, I always cheated and looked at the keys. Once I paid £120 (way back in time!), I sat in the back room of the woman's house with her tapes and manuals and the thought I had paid good money stopped me peeking at the keys! I left after a week finally able to touch type! (And I can touch type in Arabic too now though I dont understand what I'm typing and it's quite slow - but that's another story!)

[Clint Cora]

Self motivation is not an easy thing to do, even for so called successful people. The fact is very few can self motivate themselves consistently. There has to be a great purpose top of mind in order to self motivate.

For example, when I was spending all those years going after world championships in karate, I was self motivated enough to train like crazy all the time. But after retiring, I was not as self motivated to train as before.

What most people have to do, including those who are successful, is to enlist the help of others for motivation and especially accountability. If there is a key to motivation, the efforts with others would be it, as long as the other people are able to motivate you. Being with others who are not able to motivate will simply defeat the purpose.

I found that the right type of exposure to motivating groups will actually help me become more self motivated when I'm alone. So for you, you have to find compatible groups of other people who would be in the capacity to motivate and keep you accountable in the areas you want to improve in.