Motivation in our daily lives can be extremely difficult to achieve. There are days when you feel like a superhero while doing all the work you have as an unstoppable car, and then there are days when you feel like that unstoppable car has just hit you. Those days, motivating yourself to do the things of the day seems impossible. However, in the days when motivation is lacking, it may be less important to focus on lack of motivation and more important to look at what other needs are not being met.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Twentieth-century psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the theory that human needs take precedence at the core and that some needs must be met before others can be disturbing (Maslow 1943). He proposed that needs are more or less hierarchical in nature, with the most basic survival and security, located at the bottom of his famous pyramid of needs, and more abstract demands such as self-fulfillment and psychological needs toward the top.

Maslow also explored how these needs relate to our sense of motivation in life. Maslow's original hierarchy included five layers of physiological needs: security, love and belonging, appreciation and self-actualization - each of which must be met before the next layer of needs can be addressed. He concluded that we are motivated by our needs, regardless of whether those needs are tangible or psychological, and that the motivation to continue 'up' will be lacking when the lowest needs are not met.

Later, Maslow withdrew his belief that one stage of needs must be fully met in order to "continue" with the next stage. There is a lot of criticism for his theory and research methods.

Why am I so unmotivated?

It is important to consider how you feel when you find yourself unmotivated. Often, we are not motivated for unfulfilled physiological and psychological reasons. We are not happy with the environment, a relationship, we are hungry, tired, etc. 

Although it is unrealistic to expect the world to stop and our to-do list to shrink as we adjust the requirements of our body and mind, we can still take a moment to calculate our well-being when motivation is low. Like lost car keys, sometimes things come up when you stop looking. The next time you find yourself looking for your long-lost motivation, consider taking the time to ask yourself what else is also missing.

Above all, remember that no one is all the time, 100% motivated and that is normal.

Source: Psychology Today