How to stay motivated in times of stress

In my eyes, stress and motivation are at completely opposite ends of what I like to call 'The Emotional Ladder'

Here's a question I'm often asked: 'How can I feel motivated to stay on track with my goals when I feel so stressed? When I'm stressed, the last thing I feel is motivated!' 

It's a good question.

Luckily, there are techniques you can use to stay motivated in stressful times. 

I often talk about The Emotional Ladder in both my corporate and personal programmes as I feel it provides a great visual aid for our ever-changing thoughts and feelings.

Now, think of your emotional ladder. Picture it in your mind. Despair might be at the very bottom rung of your ladder and joy might be at the very top.

During the course of your life, your thoughts and feelings will move up and down between both ends of your ladder. In fact, even during the course of one day we might scale different ends of the ladder!

Sometimes you might be acutely aware that you are spending more time hanging out on the lower rungs of your ladder - the rungs of despair, depression, sadness, stress or anxiety. It's not a great place to be. 

What everyone would love is to climb to the top of their ladder - for when we are at the top of our ladder we feel hope, motivation, happiness, excitement and joy - all the wonderful feelings in life.

So, back to stress and motivation...

Here's the secret - when you are in a place of stress and want to move to a place of motivation, the key is to find a way of moving up your emotional ladder, one rung at a time. 

Here's why - when we feel stressed, we often feel overwhelmed, and when overwhelmed it's much easier to miss out a rung of the ladder on your way up. Which means you're more likely to fall back down the ladder. Take your time. 

I really do love the analogy of the ladder as we can see in our minds eye what steps we need to take to get to where we want to be. 

So, think about what levels of emotion may lay between stress and motivation for you.

If your emotional ladder looks like the below (for example), think about what you need to do to work your way up to the top.

Excited

Motivated

Inspired

Curious

Apprehensive

Disinterested

Uninspired

Fearful 

Stressed 

Look at the feelings in this ladder. Stress is at the bottom and motivation is near the top. The feelings on the rungs above stress are the emotional steps you need to climb to reach motivation. 

(Of course, your rungs may look different to this)

So, what can you do to climb your ladder?

The answer is - ask yourself POWER QUESTIONS.

Now, start getting excited my love, because getting out of stress and into motivation can be made as simple as this - power questions. No magic pills, no medications. Just a series of different questions which help you to arrive in a different emotional place in your mind which will have a direct impact on your stress levels. 

Here's where you start:

If you are in a place of disinterest, you can get to the next rung up your ladder by simply asking yourself 'How can I feel inspired?' 'How can I feel more hope?' "How can I feel excited about this?'

Think about your answers to these questions. What are they?

Once you have your answers to your power questions, I want you to check in with how you FEEL. Really feel into it. Do you feel good? Do you feel better? Is there a spark of excitement perhaps? 

Once you have got to your next desired emotional state - your next rung up the ladder -  you can elevate your power questions again.

Constantly ask yourself these great power questions...

How can I be better?

How can I be more inspired?

How can I be more courageous?

How can I be more?

How can I contribute?

How can I get excited?

How can I be more motivated?

What do I need to do to stay motivated?

Write your answers down and keep asking yourself them every day. Your positivity will grow each day, your stress will shrink and your motivation will increase.

Now keep it up!

It's really important to keep asking these resourceful questions as often as you can to keep your motivation high.

I have seen so many of my clients go from feeling down and depressed to excited and inspired about life by asking themselves power questions.

If you struggle to create your own please feel free to use mine.

If you'd like more help reducing stress and creating a life you love, let’s jump on a discovery call and I can help you to get to where you want to be.

Love and Light

Adele

[email protected]