Motivation Muse
Are you feeling any of the following emotions?
Anxious
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Guilty
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Overwhelmed
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Stressed
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Frustrated
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Stuck
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Inadequate
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Indecisive
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Dissatisfied
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Hopeless
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Anxious | Guilty | Overwhelmed | Stressed | Frustrated | Stuck | Inadequate | Indecisive | Dissatisfied | Hopeless |
Motivation Muse is your personal inspiration and motivation companion to help unlock your full potential. This reflective journey is designed to empower you to overcome procrastination, self-doubt, and negative feelings, guiding you with scientifically grounded questions that reconnect you with your purpose and deeper why. Whether you're pursuing career success, personal growth, or health and wellness, Motivation Muse is your can help you turn your dreams into achievable milestones.
When to use it
Motivation muse works wonders if you are feeling stuck, and trapped in a cycle of inaction and guilt. You may be feeling the following emotions:
Overwhelmed
Inadequate
Unmotivated
Indecisive
Hopeless
Anxious
Guilty
Stressed
Frustrated
How it works
Motivation Muse is a structured journaling exercise that asks you to reflect and respond to a series of eight questions that reconnect you with your larger goals and map out achievable steps to get there. The questions are as follows:
1. What activity are you having a hard time getting started or feeling negative about? Often when we are feeling stuck, its a generalized feeling. Being specific can help reduce feelings of overwhelm. Increased clarity can lead to more targeted problem solving and motivate action.
2. What emotions are coming up for you? What fears are coming up? Before trying to increase your motivation, it’s important to recognize and make space for the emotions you are feeling. People often assume that procrastination is a time management issue, but it’s really an emotional regulation challenge. When people are procrastinating, they are often struggling with negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration, or even fear of failure. More often than not, these emotions are the real barriers to taking action. Reflecting on your emotions brings them into conscious awareness, which is the first step in understanding and managing them effectively.
3. What would you say to a friend if they were struggling with this? Self-criticism and procrastination often go hand-in-hand. This question helps shift your perspective by encouraging self-compassion and reducing self-criticism. By adopting the supportive and understanding language you would use with a friend, you can motivate yourself, engage in problem-solving, and cultivate a more positive and empathetic self-talk.
4. Why is this task or activity important to you? Regardless of how you are feeling right now about the task, there’s a reason why you believe this activity is important. This question helps you align this task with your overarching goals, values, or even a deeper sense of purpose and meaning. Emotions also play a vital role in motivation. When you reflect on why a task is important, you tap into the emotional aspect of your motivation. For example, writing and delivering performance reviews is often something I dread. However, when I reconnect with the real purpose of these reviews as an opportunity to appreciate and develop my team members, while also improving the overall effectiveness of my team, I feel more motivation and energy to do them — and to do them well.
5. How would you feel if you completed this activity or task? This question will help you tap into positive feelings awaiting you upon task completion, such as satisfaction and accomplishment. By visualizing these emotions, it transforms the task into a more enticing and motivating endeavor. This technique taps into intrinsic motivation, fostering a goal-oriented mindset and enhancing self-confidence. It counteracts procrastination's negative focus and delays immediate gratification, making it easier to initiate and sustain action. Moreover, the anticipation of positive emotions acts as a driving force for action, promoting resilience in the face of challenges.
6. What personal strengths or resources do you have that can help complete this activity or task? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we are focused on the things standing in your way of completing a task you need (or want) to do but lack the motivation to actually get started. This question helps you identify the strengths and capabilities you already have that will help you accomplish or at least get started with the activity. By remembering the resources you have, you can transform the doubt and hesitation you feel into self-efficacy and empowerment.
7. How can you break this task into smaller, more manageable steps to make it feel less overwhelming? Large, complex tasks can often seem daunting and insurmountable, leading to procrastination. Breaking down the task into smaller, more manageable steps simplifies it, making it appear more approachable and less intimidating. This segmentation reduces the cognitive and emotional overwhelm associated with the task, thereby diminishing a key barrier to getting started. Answering this question essentially creates a roadmap that transforms a daunting challenge into a structured action plan with clear, manageable steps, facilitating an immediate start and building momentum through small, achievable wins. This approach can enhance your sense of control and achievement, significantly reducing the inertia associated with large tasks. By breaking down the task, this question shifts the focus from the enormity of the entire task to the attainability of its individual components, making it a powerful tool in overcoming procrastination.
8. What’s the smallest thing you can do to get started? Beginning a task is often the most challenging part of overcoming procrastination. By identifying a minimal, easily achievable step, this question lowers the psychological resistance associated with starting a new task or habit. By focusing on how to get started with minimal effort, reflecting on this question effectively counters the overwhelming nature of the activity by shifting the focus to the simplest, most immediate action that can be taken. This approach taps into the momentum-building aspect of task completion. Our goal here is to focus more on crossing the starting line rather than worrying about the finish line. The goal: just get started.
How to use it
I’ve created three different versions of Motivation Muse, allowing you to choose the one that feels most intuitive or convenient for your use:
✨ AI Chatbot. This is an on-demand, interactive AI journal based on these questions with personalized support. In addition to the journaling itself, this AI journal can provide a report and deeper insights you can capture for deeper reflection and processing. If you subscribe to ChatGPT plus, you can try the Motivation Muse GPT for free. This is the version I use most myself. One thing I love about it is the ability to speak aloud my responses when I’m out for a walk. It allows me to get the benefits of deep reflection in a fraction of the time.
📝 Google Docs Template. I know that not everyone is comfortable with AI, and prefer to have something more tangible. If you can’t or don’t want to use the AI Chatbot, my Google Docs template is a great option for you. As an editable template, you can make a copy and save it to your Google Drive. Any time you have a new entry you want to do, you can create a new version of the template.
📄 PDF Download. Finally, I have a traditional PDF download if you don’t use Google Docs, or you prefer to handwrite your responses.
