What Does It Mean When You Have No Motivation
We all struggle to find the drive to do the things we need. We know what is best for us and what we should do, yet we fail to take action. The human condition is one of understanding the ideal and falling short of it constantly.
But why is this the case? Why do we procrastinate? When we search for the lack of motivation meaning, what is the answer behind it? How come we cannot use our will to direct our body with perfect executive action all the time?
Today, we’ll explore the topic of lack of motivation (also known as procrastination) and why it manifests in our lives. The meaning of it may be different than you think.
Lack of Motivation: Meaning Of the Subconscious and Conscious.
To give a very simplistic definition to a complex topic, the subconscious mind is the crew of the ship and the conscious mind is the captain of the ship.
The conscious mind (you) is the realm of will, executive decision, analysis, and self-awareness. It is you, the observer of the external reality being created for it from sensory data. It is also the observer of the internal images, thoughts, and feelings produced by the subconscious mind representing the different choices it wishes the conscious mind to make. It is the decision maker of the choice the body will ultimately make. It also can create executive plans about new choices and communicate them to the subconscious mind using imagination.
The subconscious mind is the crew of the ship. It processes all of the body’s sensory data, creates the external reality the conscious mind perceives, and stores all of a person’s values and purposes in life (your “true” self). It uses internal images and thoughts to communicate to the conscious mind the actions it wishes to take to fulfill its values and purposes. It uses emotion to drive or discourage the conscious mind from taking or not taking certain actions.
In an actualized, motivated individual, both minds are in sync and working towards a shared goal. However, sometimes they come into conflict about which path they wish to take. This is the core meaning behind a lack of motivation.
Lack of Motivation: Meaning and Importance of the Known
One of the fundamental patterns of the subconscious mind is it always wants to do what’s comfortable. It considers the known to be safe and fears the unknown by default. Even if the known is logically worse than the proposed unknown, it will still create resistance to change. It does not like to update its neuro-circuity. It requires the repetition of positive feedback from the environment to do so. Thus, the subconscious mind will always produce resistance and lack of motivation when being asked to do things it has zero experience with.
It’s best to think of this meaning behind a lack of motivation as a test the subconscious mind is putting the conscious mind through. It is communicating to the conscious mind saying “You think this change is worth it? Do you think this will be better for us? Then, prove it to me.”
In other words, the subconscious mind wants the conscious mind to prove to it whatever unknown it intends to pursue is of value. The subconscious wants the conscious mind to do this by utilizing its willpower to push past the resistance. If the conscious mind does this and the subconscious mind receives new positive feedback from the environment, it will get on board and begin to produce motivation instead of resistance.
Lack of Motivation Because of Past Failures
The above covers the meaning of lack of motivation in the context of the unknown, but what about past failures? What happens when the conscious mind does something that the subconscious mind has already negatively experienced before?
This brings up a second type of motivation. Now, instead of the conscious mind asking for it to do an unknown, it is asking it to do something it has already learned that will not result in any value. This creates an even stronger form of lack of motivation. The subconscious mind, to protect the body from expending its energy on something detrimental, robs the body of its energy, creating the emotional states of discouragement and procrastination.
This is yet another form of test. The subconscious mind is now saying “This failed once before. If you want to do this, prove to me it will go differently.” The feelings of discouragement and procrastination are usually accompanied by internal images and thoughts related to past failures. The subconscious mind wants these failures reconciled, so it can understand why they won’t repeat this next time.
Meaning of Lack of Interest and Boredom
A third meaning of lack of motivation rests behind the emotional experience of boredom. This is an emotional state the subconscious mind creates when it’s not able to connect an activity to the fulfillment of its values and purposes. In other words, the conscious mind is proposing a course of action and the subconscious is responding with “But…why?”
Imagine a man whose core purpose in life is to be a warrior and a fighter. Now, imagine someone suggests he participate in a basket weaving class. He consciously decides to give it a try to be polite. What do you think the odds are he will eventually get bored with it and return to training to fight? Probably pretty high, because it’s not easy to connect the task of basket weaving to his core purpose and values around being a warrior and fighter.
Conclusion
Behind all three of the above examples lies the subconscious mind robbing the body of its energy to stop the conscious mind from doing something it believes has no value. Sometimes, this is a good thing, because the subconscious is right based on experience while the conscious is wrong. At other times, the conscious mind needs to provide more information and feedback to the subconscious mind to get it on board with its executive plan. It can do this optimally by strategically utilizing the mind’s imagination to communicate what it wants to the subconscious mind. This is called future pacing and goal setting and it’s a skill we teach people as NLP practitioners and hypnotherapists.
If you found this post on lack of motivation to be useful, you may enjoy these posts on moving forward and using NLP to beat procrastination.
