How to Keep Going When You Don’t Feel Like It - Day 15

Ep. 149 - How to Keep Going When You Don’t Feel Like It - Day 15

Description:

We’re in week 3 of Momentum Month, and this is where things get tough. That initial motivation? Gone. The excitement? Fading. You’re in the messy middle—where things aren’t fresh and new anymore, but you’re also not seeing big results yet. This is the moment where most people give up. But not you. Not this time.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to push through when you don’t feel like it. I’m sharing my best mindset hacks, motivation tricks, and real-life strategies to keep you moving forward—no matter how much you want to quit.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

✔️ Why motivation naturally fades and how to work around it

✔️ The power of "go slow, don’t stop"

✔️ How to gamify your goals and trick yourself into taking action

✔️ The #1 strategy I use to keep showing up when I don’t feel like it

If you’re struggling to stay on track, this episode is for you. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Blog Post: https://christinaslaback.com/2025/02/15/day-15-how-to-keep-going-when-you-dont-feel-like-it-even-when-motivation-is-gone/

Resources Mentioned:

• Join The Village: Click here to connect with our community.
• Sign up for the Momentum Challenge: Click here to get started.

Resources & Links

• Follow Christina @christinaslaback
• Email us at hello@christinaslaback.com
• www.christinaslaback.com

Transcript

Day 15 - Motivation Wanes

Christina: [00:00:00] right around the third week motivation dips hard. At the beginning, it's exciting. There's fresh energy, a challenge. You can see that vision of something better. And at the end, the motivation will pick up again because you can see the finish line and the payoff is so close.

But in the middle, it's like running a race and you're at the halfway part. Too far to turn back around. But not close enough to the end to get that final push. 

Welcome to Clear and On Purpose, the podcast designed to help you cut through the noise and get back to what matters most. If you're feeling stuck but need to take intentional action, you're in the right place. I'm Kristina Slaibach, homeschooling mom of two and life and business coach, helping you drop in and align with your values and create more space.

Each week I'll be sharing practical insights and simple, Actual steps to help you find [00:01:00] clarity, boost your energy and design a life that balances ambition with. Let's dive in and get clear on purpose.

Welcome back to Momentum Month. We're kicking off week three, and this is where things get real. This week, we'll be talking all about overcoming obstacles. The excitement of starting something new has faded, and the finish line still feels way too far away. If you've been following along, taking action, and working toward your goals, you might be hitting that wall right about now.

And that's completely normal. Today we're going to talk about how to keep going when motivation just isn't showing up for you. Because motivation isn't something that you can count on. It's inconsistent. Fleeting. And if you let it, it'll ghost you when you need it most. So we're going to work with our brains instead of against them and use some hacks to push [00:02:00] through the messy middle.

The messy middle and why motivation fades. right around the third week motivation dips hard. At the beginning, it's exciting. There's fresh energy, a challenge. You can see that vision of something better. And at the end, the motivation will pick up again because you can see the finish line and the payoff is so close.

But in the middle, it's like running a race and you're at the halfway part. Too far to turn back around. But not close enough to the end to get that final push. Brene Brown really says it best. She calls it the messy middle. And that's exactly what it is. It's messy, uncertain, frustrating. This is where most people quit, but you're not most people.

You're here, doing the work, and we're gonna make sure that you keep moving forward. Here's some [00:03:00] strategies to keep you going when you don't feel like it. Remember how far you've come. It's easy to focus on how much further you have to go, but take a second to look at where you started. You've already done half the work.

Why waste that effort? I use this mindset all the time. Whether it's halfway through a workout, a business project, or a big life goal. If I stop now, I'll just have to start over later. And I'd rather keep moving forward than repeat the same hard beginning over and over. Break it down into tiny goals. If the big picture feels overwhelming, zoom all the way in.

Instead of thinking, I have to run 9 miles today, I would tell myself, I'm just going to get my shoes on. Then it's, I'll just run a mile. See how I feel. Most of the time, once I started, I would keep going. The hardest [00:04:00] part is just getting started. And this works for anything. Writing, cleaning, making sales calls.

Just do the next tiny step. You don't have to feel motivated to take action, you just have to start. Go slow, don't stop. This is something that I heard, and it is So valuable. She applied it to housework, but it can apply to anything. it's that you can go and tell yourself that you can go as slow as you need to, as long as you don't stop.

 when you have to pick up the house or do a project and it feels really overwhelming, You can literally go as slow as possible. But you just keep going. So if you have 500 words to write, you can write slowly. Take it one more time, but just keep going.

If you need to clean your house, just walk around and pick up one thing at a [00:05:00] time. Giving yourself permission to go slow removes the pressure and really makes it easier to keep showing up. Pair it with something enjoyable. So this is where we can trick our brains into cooperating. So that thing that you don't want to do, that you know you should, if you pair it with something that you really do enjoy.

you only let yourself listen to your favorite podcast while you're doing admin work. Or you watch your guilty pleasure show only while you're folding laundry. If you make the task more enjoyable, you're more likely to stick with it. Make it a game. Turn your tasks into a challenge. Set a time. I have 20 minutes to finish these emails, and then I am done for the day.

Or, track your progress like a video game. One creator that I follow calls his goals his quarterly quests, and he treats them like they're missions to complete. Like action steps in the game. Whatever works [00:06:00] for your brain, really allow yourself to lean into it. The more that you can just play around and work with your brain and give it these kind of little mind hacks, the easier that it'll be to be able to keep going.

 Just find little ways that you can kind of bring in a sense of a challenge into your life to be able to get that spark of motivation. Find an accountability partner.

Sometimes just knowing that someone else is working alongside you, even if they're doing something completely different, can help. we would do co working spaces in the village and just having somebody else on Zoom doing something that's totally different than what you are, would just be that a little bit of motivation to really be able to keep you focused.

and working on the activity that you had set out that you were going to do. I'll find that even if I put on something like a YouTube video of someone else being productive, that inevitably I'll start going up and being productive myself and cleaning up the house or doing whatever I needed to. Seeing someone else get [00:07:00] things done can be enough to get you moving too.

 These are common questions that I hear, especially when we start to get into the middle when we're working with clients, Oh, so I'll come in for the check in and it's just, I'm not feeling excited about my goals anymore. So how do I get back on track? Some things that I want you to ask yourself is, do these goals still align with what you actually want?

Or are you just tired? If you need to pivot, do it from a place of alignment, not avoidance. it's really great to be able to pivot and you do want to make sure that your goals are in alignment, but you want to also make sure that you're checking in and making sure that you're just not trying to revert to your comfort zone.

Because you're just tired of doing it, or you're bored. you really want to look at it from a place of empowerment and alignment, and this is, I'm realizing that this is not working, or this is no longer my goal and I want to adjust. [00:08:00] Versus, I'm just tired of doing it, so I'm going to go back to doing what I was doing before.

Another question I hear, what should I do when I feel too tired or uninspired to move forward? And my question is usually, just lower the bar. Do the bare minimum instead of nothing. Something is always better than nothing. And how do I stop giving up when things get hard? And to that, just remember that most goals require so little time each day.

We probably make them into much bigger deals, but in reality, most of the things that we need to do don't take a ton of time or effort. It's just getting started. So do the minimum and keep going. motivation is great. I love motivation, but only when it's around. But when you just keep moving, even [00:09:00] regardless of that motivation, that's where you get the results.

So you don't have to feel like doing it, you just have to keep going. If you're in that messy middle, stay in the game. Adjust, pivot, play mind games, seriously, all the mind games. If you have to, whatever you need to do to move forward, you're already halfway there. let's keep going together. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Momentum Month.

If this episode helped you, please share it with a friend who might need a little push. Get an accountability partner for it. And don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. We're in this together and we are not stopping now. I'll see you next time.

Thank you for tuning in to Clear and On Purpose. If you're ready to take intentional steps toward a more fulfilling [00:10:00] life and want to customize the approach, I'd love to work with you. Visit www. christinaslayback. com to schedule a free consultation or explore current offers designed to help you gain clarity and reclaim your energy.

And don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with a friend if you found it helpful. It helps others find the show and grow our community.