A Writer's Words - When Your Motivation Takes a Nosedive

Hocus Pocus and All That

Maureen L. Bonatch

When Your Motivation Takes a Nosedive

Do you ever have one of those days when as soon as you wake up you know it’s going to be a fabulous day? You have a smile plastered on your face, and you’re showing your to-do list you’re the boss as you feel as if you can tackle anything that comes your way on this day. Then you go to bed and when you wake up the next day you wonder how in the world you can muster up the energy to get out of bed. What the heck happened to all that awesome from yesterday? If only we could bottle up that feel-good energy just imagine how much more we could accomplish.

Riding the Rollercoaster of Inspiration
This concept has fascinated me for some time but has been almost as elusive as the fountain of youth. (Still looking for that too! I could use a new back if you find it.) The way in which we can almost replica that day down to the amount of sleep, what we eat and do, yet feel completely different on the next day. On my ‘awesome day’, I’ll ride that invincible feeling to commit myself to a ton of projects, only to start another day struggling to get each word on the page and feeling as if I’m selling my soul 500 words at a time.

A Standoff with the Sloth
So far, I have not found the secret to avoiding the days that motivation seems to take a nosedive and spending the day in a sloth-like fashion seems like the most appealing, though unavailable, option. The closest I have come is by writing a character in one of my books (Hope, from Destiny Calling) with the ability to give, or take away, feeling of hope and happiness.

Instead, I just have to try methods to keep moving through those listless days and hope that the next day I wake it will be full of awesome so I can go forth and conquer.

Resuscitating Your Motivation
Sometimes it’s not immediately apparent that my motivation has taken an impromptu vacation. I might notice it when an hour has passed and I realize I’m still aimlessly surfing social media or when I can’t seem to escape from my emails.

• Take a break- get up and move around, or attend to another task—just move.

• Rewrite my To-Do List- taking the tasks out of my thoughts to organize them on paper often makes them seem more manageable

• Conquer the simplest tasks first- if I’m frozen with a major deadline sometimes it helps to stop glancing at my long to-do list by doing a few easy tasks and then returning to the major one

• Change track- if I’m working my fiction, change to my freelance writing or vice versa. That way I’m still getting things done, but my mind gets a little break.

• Do something else- whether it’s reading a book, getting a snack, closing my eyes for 5-10 minutes, often taking the time to stop thinking about what needs done

How Do You Get Your Motivation Moving?

Post originally featured on Paranormal Romantics Blogspot

© 2020 Maureen L. Bonatch All Rights Reserved Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. http://www.maureenbonatch.com/