15 Reasons You’re Demotivated & How To Avoid Demotivating Yourself?

You know how important getting that job or promotion is for you, but you are yet to make changes to your resume or deliver your important marketing project. So what is stopping you from making efforts to get that job or a higher position? All you can say is that you feel demotivated.

Feeling demotivated can derail your professional and personal life. It also affects your mental and physical well-being. But as with most other problems, there is a way out. You can get back to feeling motivated and hungry for success.

But before that, we will talk about the reasons you feel demotivated. After all, feeling demotivated makes a person feel terrible. One must understand the problem well before trying to find solutions. So, let’s dive right into it.

15 Reasons That Make You Feel Demotivated

Demotivation is a terrible feeling that can happen to anyone. It takes a massive toll on one’s mental health, but, as we said above, there is a way out of it.

First, you need to try and figure out the reason behind the demotivation.

So, here are the possible reasons why you might be feeling demotivated. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1) Your Efforts Lack a Sense of Purpose

To have goals is essential for our lives. It gives direction to our efforts and guides us, and also, goals provide us with the intent to keep grinding. But, unfortunately, this lack of purpose is a common reason why people lack motivation.

Without goals, people tend to go through the motions. They work for the sake of it and have no bigger picture to seek motivation from. Instead, people want to do something meaningful with their lives.

According to a Harvard Business Review survey, 9 out of 10 would agree to take less money and do meaningful work.

People seek meaning and purpose in life, and if you lack it, it can demotivate you.

2) The Fear of Change

Seeking constant growth is essential to keep you driven. However, making progress is possible only if you are willing to embrace change. For example, you might need to change jobs and earn more, but the fear of changes is not allowing you to take that step.

This leads you to continue to work on a job you don’t want to.

As a result, you slowly lose the will to do well in your current position, and your fear of change has already made it impossible for you to go looking for better options. You begin to lose motivation and get stuck with a stagnant career.

3. You’re Working for the Wrong Reason

As we discussed above, more and more people want to do meaningful work. It means that they want to enjoy doing what they do. And that is possible only if they love their work. Say if someone takes up a job only for financial reasons, they will gradually lose any motivation to turn up for work.

Ask yourself, what is the motivation behind things you are doing? For example, are you working that job only because of money? Or are you still in a job because you’re hesitant to look for other opportunities? If yes, it might just be the reason why you feel demotivated.

4. You Might Have Too Much on Your Plate

What we mean is you can overwhelm yourself with too much work. When you have too much on your plate, you won’t be able to eat all of it. Moreover, if you fail to complete it all, it can hamper your confidence.

Remember, work should not make you anxious. The key to staying motivated is enjoying what you do. And when you overwhelm yourself with heaps of work, it starts to feel like a drag. As a result, you lose the positivity you need to keep your drive.

5. You Have Unrealistic Expectations From Yourself

There is no problem in rating yourself highly. But one must be realistic in expecting things from themselves. For example, you might think that you should have accomplished more by now, and it can cause a massive dent in your self-esteem.

A decrease in self-esteem has a direct effect on your morale. First, you stop appreciating what you have achieved. Instead, you fret over failing to reach goals that were unrealistic to begin with. It is a vicious cycle that you must avoid to stay motivated.

6. You Are Not Setting Short-Term Goals

Our long-term goals are often enormous. For example, we might want to own a successful business in five years or reach a top position in our company. Of course, these goals also motivate us, but they’re too far off.

In comparison, short-term goals keep us on our toes. Also, when we reach a short-term goal, we feel a sense of accomplishment. However, relying too much on long-term goals might also be the reason why you feel demotivated.

The reason is, you have to celebrate and recognize your small achievements. This will make you feel accomplished in your career and motivated to the next challenge.

7. You’re, or You Company is Settling for Less Than You Can Achieve

We discussed overwhelming yourself with too much work. But, on the other hand, some people, or some companies, settle for way less than what employees can achieve.

The reason can be diverse. For example, your boss is afraid of you getting his position, so he can limit the number of projects you’re handling. Or, you are afraid of taking risks, so you end up not being proactive to work on projects or tasks at your company.

As a result, their accomplishments do not give you a confidence boost. It is because deep down, they also know they are capable of more. Therefore, you refuse to push your limits and settle for results you are not satisfied with.

8. Inaction Leading To Demotivation

You must have heard about people who have the potential but never work hard. Even when they have tasks to complete, they don’t ever seem to pull up their socks and get to work. Consequently, they feel demotivated most of the time.

Inaction is among the most significant reasons for demotivation. Showing up and doing what you have to is the only way out of inactivity. Fear of things like failure, rejection, and change is often the cause of inaction.

9. Boredom Caused by Too Little Challenge

If the work we are doing isn’t challenging enough, it gradually loses meaning for us. There is an educational theory on the same topic known as the control-value theory. It suggests that too little challenge leads only leads to boredom. And boredom at work is sure to make us feel demotivated.

In a nutshell, if what we are doing is too easy, we lose interest. We need a manageable level of challenge to stay on our toes and motivated.

10. Self-Doubt

Some people don’t value themselves enough.

They doubt their skills will ever match the competition. This takes a toll on their desire to achieve big things, making them feel demotivated about every aspect of their lives.

Trying to know yourself is a way out of self-doubt. Writing your strengths and weaknesses down and taking them head-on will help.

11. A Negative Outlook

One must look at the negative and positive sides of anything that happens. However, having a negative outlook can be disastrous for you.

If you fix your gaze on the negative side, you will begin to lose confidence. In the long run, it will rob you of any motivation you have left.

Are you sinking into the habit of looking only at the negative side? Try to give yourself conscious reminders about seeing both aspects of an outcome.

12. Trapped in the Blame Game

It is easy to blame others for our failures.

It doesn’t matter how harsh it may sound, but it is true. Getting stuck in the blame game can be terrible for your motivation. It makes you feel helpless and that you are never at fault.

As a result, you lose any chance of improving as a person and feel demotivated. You are pointing fingers when you should be looking at your shortcomings, and it takes a toll on your confidence without you realizing it.

13. Poor Time Management

We all know how important time is for us, and poor time management can sabotage our professional and personal lives. Unfortunately, procrastinating and endlessly stretching deadlines continue till we feel defeated.

Failing to schedule properly stops us from reaching our goals on time. As a consequence, it makes us feel like we are just not good enough.

14. Letting Opportunities Pass

There are no jobs out there. This is a sentence we often hear from people. Instead of looking for opportunities, they believe there aren’t any. So, in the end, they let some great opportunities pass.

You must realize no one will give you success on a platter. Opportunities are waiting for you to grab them. All you need to do is step out and start looking.

15. Not Valuing the Little Things

This one is not limited to our professional lives. One must learn to value the little things. It can be a lovely weekend you spend with your family after a week of hard work. Or it can be a few words of praise from your superiors. These little things keep our spirits high.

When you don’t value little steps of progress, you stop feeling positive. In the long run, it makes you feel demotivated and gives birth to a negative outlook.

Five Ways to Avoid Getting Demotivated

Even the best of us get demotivated sometimes, but there are ways you can avoid it. Of course, factors such as discipline play a crucial role in keeping us going. But we will talk about some lesser-known practical ways.

Reward Yourself for Your Work

When we get appreciated for our work, it makes us feel good. So rather than looking for praise from others all the time, why not reward yourself?

Yes, self-reward methods will make you feel good about yourself. They also help you stay motivated to work harder.

Reward yourself with things that make you feel happy. It can be anything from watching your favorite movie to playing a musical instrument. As a result, you will enjoy these things more than you usually do! In addition, you will know you have earned this time off.

Seek Public Support to Stay Driven

We often talk about the importance of our friends and loved ones. And they can be a great source of motivation for us.

The support of our colleagues and friends can work wonders. Share your achievements with your loved ones. Their appreciation will make it taste even better!

Also, try talking about the challenges you face with your buddies. Listen to their work problems and try to be a motivating influence.

Support from people close to you will help you avoid feeling demotivated.

Keep Distractions to a Minimum

We live in an age of distractions.

Social media feeds and notifications are popping up all around, and unfortunately, distractions can keep us from achieving our goals. As a consequence, it can be a significant demotivating factor.

We don’t expect you to stop using your smartphone altogether. But, unfortunately, these distractions are part and parcel of our lives.

So, you should try your best to avoid distractions as much as possible to save time, using that time to accomplish your tasks and achieve your goals.

Set Deadlines to Stay Focused

Not all tasks come with a deadline. Some projects don’t have a time limit, and it can make us complacent. We start to procrastinate and end up rushing into making silly mistakes. That’s why deadlines are essential to empower our discipline.

Not having deadlines can make you lose focus.

Set a date and time to complete your tasks and stick to the deadline. It will also help you arrange your tasks in an orderly manner.

When you complete your assignments before the deadline, it gives you confidence. And it would help if you had this confidence to avoid feeling demotivated.

Know and Accept Your Limitations

You must know and accept one thing: You cannot feel motivated and driven all the time.

Therefore, there will be moments when you will feel demotivated, and knowing it will help you cope better with demotivation.

Remember the steps we discussed above, and they will help you keep you driven towards your goals, and you will steer away from any demotivation.

Discipline Is Key for Staying Motivated

Discipline is vital if you want to avoid feeling demotivated. All the steps we discussed in the previous section have this one thing needed: discipline.

To follow those steps, you need a level understanding of your reasons for demotivation and apply the abovementioned solutions with discipline. Be it setting deadlines or steering away from distractions.

Also, you must realize that you will not feel the same every day. Some days you will feel demotivated and would want to procrastinate. It is on such days that you need to give remind yourself about discipline. If you do that, you will retain your drive and passion.