Abstract:

It’s clear that a constant lack of time will be detrimental to your passions. No explanation needed.

What happens though when you do have time, and find yourself uninspired, unmotivated, completely out of step with your passion? It’s something you love, right?

Your mission today is to learn why you can’t pursue your passion when you’re stressed.

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Task 1: Understand you’re not to blame

This is the point where I keep harping on about the fact that you’re not lazy. It’s easy to draw this conclusion in a world that expects us to function 24/7.

What’s wrong with that? Nothing, except that humans don’t work that way. We’re simply not made for relentless pursuit of… something or other.

I’ve pointed out before that in order to be creative, the human brain needs boredom. When kids are bored, they come up with the best games eventually. Adults work just the same way.

So after years of demanding too much of yourself, you can probably still kick yourself to work and even to do the housework, most of the time, but passions? Not happening.

Task 2: Reclaim your motivation when you’re stressed

This seems simple: Avoid stress! Thanks, bye! Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy, or optional.

If you’re in a situation where you really can’t escape the stress, radically create downtime. Tough times require tough measures – and this will drive home the point that stress should only ever be temporary. Therefore, perhaps consider some changes in the medium term, to avoid continued stress and burnout.

Make sure you’re rested and sleep well and use the aforementioned downtime to do nothing much of anything. That doesn’t mean “binge Netflix shows”, by the way. It means offline time, with a book, a friend, or taking a walk.

As for your passion, it will happen, but you may have to be patient. Maybe, after a week or so with sufficient rest and downtime, have a go for 10 minutes. See how it feels; you may want to continue.