Tags – How to Find Motivation When You’re Depressed
Depression is a mental condition that causes feelings of sadness and hopelessness and unfortunately a loss of motivation to complete tasks.
For those who are suffering with depression, they have to fight really hard to do anything, even if it’s as small as getting out of bed.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to slowly regain the motivation needed to live life to the fullest, without taking medication.
Here are 5 techniques to find motivation when you’re depressed.
1. Focus on One Task at a Time
To boost motivation, only focus on one task at a time , otherwise your mind will be concentrating on lots of other things that are not related to what you’re trying to achieve.
For example, if your goal is to cook three meals a day, when it comes to breakfast – only concentrate on breakfast, don’t think about what you’ll be cooking for dinner.
In other words, focus on the “here and now”, and break responsibilities into smaller sections.
At the same time, be realistic with what you want to achieve, because setting the bar too high will make you feel worse if you’re not able to complete what you were set out to do.
2. Set Small Goals
As depression affects your motivation, it’s important not to overwhelm yourself with a long list of tasks to get through.
With that in mind, you should start by setting smaller goals and celebrate those achievements.
By doing so, you will slowly restore your motivation and as you begin to feel better, you can slowly make your goals a little more difficult each time.
On the other hand, if your goals are making you feel stressed, reevaluate your expectations and see what works better for you.
3. Celebrate Small Successes
When you’re depressed and you’ve completed a full day, it’s important you acknowledge yourself and your accomplishments.
At the end of the day, you’re constantly facing internal battles and it’s important not to compare your achievements to other people’s.
With that in mind, celebrate the positive steps you’ve made each day and talk to yourself in a positive manner.
By doing so, you’ll be able to alter your mindset and find motivation – you got this!
4. Avoid Perfectionism
It’s important to remember – no one is perfect.
Consequently, if you focus on doing something without any flaws, it could put you off from starting that task in the first place.
Sometimes, people with depression feel as though their actions have to be perfect otherwise they’ve failed – but this is not the case.
Therefore, allow yourself to accept to be less than perfect, and you may find you have more motivation to get things done.
5. Try Not to Feed Your Depression
Depression feeds on negative thoughts, doubts and fears and in turn, feeds more depression creating a snowball effect.
Whilst it’s hard to eliminate these thoughts you should try and identity these to help you minimise them,
As such, do the opposite – listen to motivational speeches or read positive quotes to boost your mood; one positive thought can outweigh hundreds of negative ones.
The Final Word
Hopefully, these techniques will help you to find some motivation to complete tasks whilst you’re on the road to recovery.
Remember, persistence is key and always celebrate even the smallest of successes to stay motivated and productive.
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