What do you when you can’t get motivated, and you just feel apathetic, lazy, and too overwhelmed to do anything? For someone who talks about productivity a lot, I still struggle with apathy, laziness, and procrastination. All of us do from time to time. We may not even think of ourselves as “lazy people” but find ourselves procrastinating tasks, doing things halfway or just saying eh, I don’t really feel like putting in the effort.
If I do this often and let it go unchecked, I can start to feel guilty about all the tasks piling up, and wonder what’s wrong with me? I want to do things well, but I keep falling into this pattern of apathy.
So what’s the secret to success? Contrary to what you might read, these issues can’t be fixed with a motivational quote and a bigger planner. While planning is a VERY helpful tool that can help you overcome procrastination and apathy, it won’t help unless you have a foundation of why you are trying to do anything at all! A little more willpower isn’t the answer. As Christians, getting motivated and kicking laziness comes from a firm belief that: 1) Our actions are worship to God, and 2) Our actions have Kingdom impact.
How and What You Use Your Time for is Worship to God
When we feel laziness coming on, we need something we can grab a hold of to motivate us to keep going. But we can’t find motivation in just anything, it has to be something sustainable. Something eternal. You may have heard productivity gurus or motivational speakers call this “finding you why”. This is the same principle with a biblical perspective. Because If you don’t have a foundation for everything you’re doing, eventually you will burn out and have nothing to draw from. Sooner or later the days will get too hard, you will get too tired, and will hit a wall. When that happens, you can’t be drawing from the shallow stream of motivational quotes. You need the deep well of wisdom God gives us, and tells us that we have purpose behind everything we do.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
Colossians 3:23
For me, this was just a memory verse until I let it infiltrate and transform how I approached daily living. This verse says that whatever you do, do it unto the Lord. That means everything.
What is our purpose? To worship God in everything we do. How do we do that? By putting our focus, efforts, and diligence into work, tasks, and everyday life. That means when we wash the dishes, we’re doing it for the glory of God. When we show up to our customer service or retail job, we’re doing it for the glory of God. When we’re in a class that we can’t stand, we can still know that our efforts, even if they go unacknowledged, are for the glory of God.
I still cringe when I think back to my first job as a teenager. I wasn’t terrible, but I lacked some serious skills in excellence. I was haphazard and rushed as I cleaned, watching the clock and trying to get through as quickly as possible. And it showed. It reflected poorly on myself and on the business I represented.
What was wrong? I didn’t have that understanding that even if the stakes didn’t seem high, my attitude still mattered. I didn’t realize that a bare minimum “get’s the job done” outlook on life wasn’t the goal. It mattered whether or not I gave my work my 100% because even cleaning a bathroom is worship to God.
When we give any task less than our 100% we’re giving God less than our 100%
How does this knowledge change how we conquer laziness? When we live in this understanding that all of our life is worship, it means we don’t have to depend on whether or not we “feel” like doing something. We understand that we can give our 100% to everything we do because that is how we can worship God.
Our Actions Have Impact
The other thing we need to realize is that our actions– what we do and how well we do it– have tremendous impact. When we put our best effort into our job, schoolwork, or home life, other’s notice. And when they notice, we want to point them to Christ.
My joy grows with every soul that seeks the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God. Don’t waste it.”
Don’t Waste your life by john piper
You have one life so live it intentionally, and live it with purpose. In order to find motivation, we need to realize our lives have impact on those around us, even when we don’t realize it.
The other day I was avoiding doing some tasks I knew I had to get done. I was overcome with sluggishness. It’s not that I didn’t have the time, I just didn’t want to do it. What clicked inside me was I realized that my lack of motivation was partly coming from an insecurity. I had some overwhelmingly negative self-talk thoughts like: You aren’t worth much so it doesn’t matter what you do. Your life isn’t significant– so why should you do those things anyway?
Friend, that is the enemy speaking. Your life matters. Your life has significance. Doing things with excellence matters. It’s not about impressing others (doing things for human masters, col. 3:23) or making yourself feel good for the sake of feeling good. It’s about knowing deep down you are valued, you have a purpose, and your work has lasting impact, even if you can’t see it.
You make an impact when you choose to clean your house cheerfully.
You make an impact when you put hours into studying, even when no one else puts in the effort.
You make an impact when you stay after hours at your job to make sure a task is done right, even if no one will really notice.
Finding motivation isn’t about “do better” “try harder” “be more productive”. It’s about a deep realization that we were meant to worship God in EVERYTHING we do. When we do things with excellence we show honor to God. When we strive for diligence, we show value to others. When we avoid laziness we recognized that our lives matter.
Practical Tips
So, now that you have your reason for being motivated, that doesn’t mean you stop there! The tools I talk about like routines, schedules, and lists are the actions you take in order to be more intentional about your life. Once you have your overall goal (Living for Christ, being an example to others). These strategies are how you reach that goal.
Read these posts to get started!
Definitely meant to see this today. Thank you.