How To Avoid Motivation Burnout

No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everyone on the couch.

We, humans, tend to get very enthusiastic about a new goal. 1st January, the beginning of a new year sees so many people joining new things like gym and adopting new resolutions. But the real question is how long will the resolution stay? People give up very easily on their resolutions. Often we dream of doing big by motivating ourselves too much. And that too much of motivation is not healthy for us. Planning to hit a million by motivating yourself on the financial front is good. But by doing it instantly by motivating too much will lead to a motivation burnout. You can’t lose your 15 kilos by going to the gym for 1 week and performing extra. It happens when the process is regular. Not that one day you are extra performing and the next day you are on bed rest. It’s good to set goals, get all motivated and inspired but is it good to have a motivation burnout?

When somebody says “You have an entire life to sort out things”. We generally don’t understand what does it mean to have an entire life to do something. We love to rush things. Growing up fast, doing things at a fast rate is good only when it is sustainable otherwise we will end up in a circle. We must have heard about the 21 days rule. Most people believe that it takes 21 days to form a habit. We can’t form a habit in 1-2 weeks. We need stability. If you suddenly decide to run 1 mile or so in one day, you may get muscle cramps. The 1-month duration may seem slow but it’s worth trying. So we need to avoid motivational burnout.

Interpretation is necessary. We need to realize where are we now and where we want to go. This gives us the next step that is taking action. Because of these steps, we tend to grow in life, in what we are doing. When people take some decision, they get excited about it. They want to finish, reach the end, skip the process. This will never help them in getting what they want. I think people don’t realize how a small step at a time can make a big change in the result. Rushing things is easy but slowing things requires patience and diligence. Our brains don’t understand that each action is significant to the other. Let’s take an example of an Origami. If we want to make a simple plane, then we will start by doing the first step of folding the paper. You will observe that after every step the paper becomes thicker and thicker. And that thickness is because of the previous steps. Each action is a consequence of the previous one.

Human nature is almost similar. Everyone wants to grow fast. Don’t blame yourself if you are a victim of motivational burnout. Internal change is gradual, it takes time to understand what you want to do. Planning is a better option than facing motivation burnout. Carry out things slowly, it may be painful but it is the key to success in the long-run.

It's not about Perfection. It's about commitment, effort and progress.