What To Do When You Aren't Motivated

Foreign podcast. Appreciate you guys for tuning in this week. Shout out to everybody who's watching on YouTube right now. Make sure you drop a like and subscribe. And everybody who's listening, Apple podcast, Spotify, Pandora, wherever you else you listen to podcast. Shout out to you guys as well. If you're on Apple podcasts, do me a favor, scroll down, leave a review, let me know what you think about the show. Raw. Read your review on the show as well. So go ahead, scroll down, let me know what you think, and we'll hop into it. You know, a question that I get a lot question really just DMS that I get a lot have to do with motivation. Have to do with, hey, you know, coach, I. I've had a good couple months, and then the last, you know, month or so, like, I haven't really felt very motivated to go work out, or I can't consistently stay motivated or, you know, really anything in that regard. Um, and I've talked about this a little bit before, but I kind of wanted to go in depth into it, talking about, what do you do when you. You don't have motivation? How do you get it back? What exactly is motivation? Like, how important is it? And ultimately, I want this to help you guys be able to, again, not just. Not just rely on me to. Or. Or somebody else, really, anybody else to motivate you, but you guys be able to create your own motivation, because I think that's the next step forward for everybody. So I think the first thing to understand is that, like, Nobody is motivated 100 of the time. Like, motive, like, like off the bat, motivation is kind of like, it doesn't really matter very much. Okay. Like, it's great to have. And there's gonna be times where you're very, very motivated for a day, for a week, for a month, for maybe a year. But then you're gonna also have times where you're unmotivated for a day, a week, a month. Like, there's gonna be times where it's kind of the ebbs and flow of all of that. So one of the things that I think is really important to understand is that you can't let motivation dictate your actions. Okay? You feel motivated, so you go do it, and then you feel unmotivated, so you don't go do it, or you feel like you have to go find some way to become motivated before you do it. At the end of the day, you just have to get the job done. Okay, but. And I think the biggest thing to understand about that is that Forget like you're gonna see on social media in any, in any realm really. Like whether it's basketball players, basketball trainers, whether it's, you know, football players or, or it could be really anybody, like anybody who posts on Instagram consistently could be some sort of like self help guru or some, you know, motivational author or whatever. Like they, they might post, they might make it seem like, oh, they're always motivated, they're always ready to go, they're always crushing it 100%. That's just not the case ever. Right. You know, I, I think this is episode 50 of the podcast. So it's been almost, it's been almost a year and it's been week 50 straight. Like I, I put a podcast out every single week for a year at this point, and I have not missed one. And that's not because I feel super motivated to record a podcast every week. I don't, there's some weeks where I, like, don't. I just don't want to. There's some ways I'm like, oh man, I can't believe I have to do this. Like, I don't feel like doing it. But at the end of the day, you either get it done or you don't get it done. And then there's some weeks where I'm super excited, like, oh, yeah, I've got a great, I've got a great topic or I've got a guest coming on. Like, I'm really excited to get this going and there's some in between there. So understand that motivation ebbs and flows. Like it's never going to be, that it's impossible to ever get to a point where you are 100% motivated 100% of the time. It just will never happen. So you have to be able to overcome that. That being said, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna dive back into that point later on. But I wanna talk about kind of off the bat, some things you can do that will definitely help you to gain some motivation. Okay. Because obviously, you know, ideally you are motivated, right? Ideally you feel motivation to go do something. And I wanna talk about a couple things that you can do to put yourself in that position. So the first thing you have to understand is that it's not just about working hard. Okay. I think a lot of times when I get, when I get dms or questions from players who struggle with, you know, staying motivated, it's because they're the type of players who are going out for three straight hours every day and they're you know, doing stationary ball handling for 45 minutes straight, and then they shoot a thousand jump shots. None of it's game like, none of it actually is going to translate for them, really. It's just exercise at that point. And then they go out, they do that every single day. And then they don't see the translation coming. And in games, and then they lose motivation because they're putting in all this hard work and they're not actually seeing it come to fruition when it matters. Okay. A big part of it is not just working smart. That's why I always talk about, you know, people want to say, oh, yeah, you got to outwork everybody. You got to work for four, five, six, seven hours a day. That's. That's not really. That's not the case because it's not just about working hard, right? Or putting in the most amount of time. It's also about being smart with how you work. Because when you're smart in the way that you work and you also work hard, then that's where the progress comes. So if you're not seeing progress, chances are you're not going to be very motivated to continue to put in the work. Okay? But when you do sort of see that progress, typically it helps to kind of, you know, spiral things forward, right? Gets the kind of the ball rolling, and it allows you to feel more motivated to go and continue to work because you see the progress coming. But the biggest thing with that is that, again, you have to make sure that the plan that you're following, first of all, you have to have a plan, right? You can't just be going out and doing whatever because you're not going to know what you're working towards. Okay? If you don't have goals that you set saying, hey, you know, I want to be this, like I'll in. In six months from now, I want to be this sort of player. I want to be able to do this. I want to be able to do that at a high level, right? Then you have to kind of build that plan to get you there. Okay. If your goal is to become a great shooter, well, what kind of shots would you be able to hit? Okay, so how do I work on those shots now if I want to become a great ball handler? Okay. What situations do I need to get better at handling the ball in and how do I work on that now? And then you're able to kind of, you know, reverse engineer it so that you can build your plan or your program to get you to those goals. Okay? So that's number one is you have to work smart. If you're not working smart, you're not seeing progress, you're putting in a lot of time and not seeing things, you know in return, then chances are you're not working smart. And that's going to definitely be a. That's something going to be a deterrent for motivation for you. So work smart is point number one that I want to make. Number two, relating back to what I talked about with goals, that's another key area you want to. And listen, there's people who probably will disagree with me here. Some people will say, hey, you know what? Set goals that are, you know, astronomical, that are unachievable, and just set goals that are massive because then it'll force you to do that and this and whatever. And that's fine if. If. If people disagree. But I think that with goals, right, Those goals should be realistic goals. Realistic, achievable goals. I think that should be the rule of thumb, because three players who are, you know, saying, hey, you know what? My goal next year is to average 25 points per game. And they got cut from the team last year, so they're going to go from getting cut from the team to now being on the basketball team and averaging 25 points per game. Now, the issue with that is that kind of like talking about working out, if you're putting in all this work and you're not seeing the results that you want, it's gonna. It's going to be. It's going to be a negative impact on the level of motivation. You have to keep on putting in that work. And it's the same thing with. With those goals. If your goal is to average 25 points per game, but then you make the team and you don't play at all well, chances are you're gonna be like, oh, man, my goal was to do this, and I didn't get it. When in. In actuality, you know, if your goal is, hey, my goal is to make the team next year, okay, now that I'm on the team, my goal is, hey, you know what? I want to. I want to play now. Like, I want to consistently get in the game, okay, Then you can just look at the game and you say, okay, my goal is to score, you know, my goal score 8 points per game now. And now all of a sudden, you're actually able to continue to stay motivated, because as you, you know, reach that goal, you're able to set another one, okay? You make the team now you have another goal to Reach to. But if your goal is to score 25 points per game when you make the team and you're not playing, what, like, what are you doing moving forward? What are you working towards? Because you're not playing, so you're not able to score 25 points per game. So now you're. Where's your motivation at? Because your goals is not going to happen, okay? So it's important that you're realistic with the goals that you set. Okay? You know, maybe if you averaged, you know, 13 points per game last year, maybe your. Your goal is 20 next year. Okay? That's. That's a realistic goal. That is something that you can actually achieve. And I think that is where there's a lot of times a disconnect right there. I think setting small achievable goals that allows you kind of almost like stepping stones to bigger goals is going to allow you to see that goal, like, tangibly in front of you, saying, hey, you know what? Like, I'm not that far off from this. I can definitely do that. You get to that, and then you say, okay, what's my next step here? And as you continue to do that and progress forward, you. You're able to stay motivated after a goal, and it. It's a lot better than you having some unachievable goal, right? If you're, you know, if you're in high school and you got cut from the team, but you're saying, hey, you know, my goal is to make the NBA. Okay, well, first of all, you're cut from your high school team, so let's focus on that first. Okay? Let's focus on making your high school team. Okay? Then you got to focus on actually getting playing time on that team. Okay? Once you have that, you got to focus on making an impact on the floor, and then you kind of go from there. But if you're. If your goal is to, you know, make the mba, what do you even do with that goal? Okay, if I'm, you know, if I want to start a. If I. If I want to start a business, let's say I want to. I want to start like a. Like a store, like a general store, right? That sells, you know, whatever, you know, clothes or, you know, toothbrushes and shoes, all this sort of stuff, you know, Know, And I say, okay, you know, I'm going to start this store, and my goal is that I want to do $1 billion in revenue my first year. That, like, where do you even start? Like, what do you even do there? You say, oh, I'M just going to do like, you. You can't. You don't. You don't want to just come up with something that's just kind of arbitrary. And that's a lot of times what it sounds like when a player is like, yeah, I want to make it to the NBA. And you haven't even achieved anything at the level you're currently at, okay? Focus on where you're at and maximizing yourself there and then build yourself up from there. Maybe my goal with my store is like, okay, you know what? This year I want to make $100,000 in profit, okay? That's my goal this year. And that's definitely a difficult goal for me because I just started, but it's achievable, okay? And then maybe the next year, maybe I reach that goal next year, okay? And I want to get to a million dollars. And you keep on building it up from there. It's the same thing with this. So point number one is work smart, okay? Have a plan and execute that plan, because you have to understand that it's not just about working hard, it's also about working smart. And then number two is set realistic and achievable goals, because those are going to help you to see that goal actually in front of you and keep you kind of on track to. To work towards that and achieve that goal. And then point number three, you know, the kind of the. The what I've already mentioned, like, I'll get. I'll get DMs and stuff all the time saying, hey, you know what? Coach, I want to play college basketball. I want to. It could even be, hey, coach, I want to. I want to start on my varsity team. Coach, I want to play college basketball. Coach, I want to make it to the NBA. I want to have a 4.0 GPA, you know, whatever. Like, it could be literally for anything, okay? It could be, I want to start a business. I want to. I want to do whatever that's like, just throw in X, doesn't even matter. Okay? But let's take, for example, like, hey, you know, Coach, I want to make it to the NBA, but I can't stay motivated to work out. And so what should I do? Well, here's the answer. The answer is, a lot of times you should just quit. And the reason for that is, listen, not necessarily every single time, because again, like I said, no one's motivated 100% of the time to do everything. But if you can't find a way to still make yourself do it right when you Know, hey, I'm supposed to go work out today, okay? And I don't feel like doing it, but if I want to reach my goal, I have to do it. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go do it. I'm going to go get my workout in, okay? That's got to be the approach that you have, because if you can't learn how to make yourself do it, then there's no point in you even doing it. You should, you should just find a new goal. You should just find something else to, to, to chase after, right? Because it's the thing, nobody says you have to be a basketball player. Like, you don't have to be. It's not like, you know, you have your job that pays, pays the bills. You have to go do that job, right? You have to go do that job. You know, if you have kids, you have to go, you have to take care of your kids, right? That's not an option. You just, even if you don't feel like doing it, you get up and you do it because that's your responsibility to do with basketball that, like, you're not, you don't have to do. There's nobody who says, hey, you have to do this or else you're not going to make any money. You have to do this or else what? Like, it's, it's, it's something that you want to do, but you don't have to do it at all. So if you aren't consistently motivated to go do the job, to go put the work in, to in bat with basketball, then you should just find something else to do. Because here's, here's the reality of it, guys. You know, I talk about numbers all the time, and I think a lot of people don't like to talk about numbers, right? Everyone wants to talk about, oh, everybody's going to make it here, everyone's going to do this, everyone's go to that. The reality is there's a lot of demand and not a lot of supply when it comes to, you know, open spots at whatever the next level is for you, okay? If you are in middle school and you want to start on your high school varsity team, there's, there's not going to be the likelihood of you doing that is going to be lower than you starting as an eighth grader on your eighth grade team, okay? There's going to be more competition for that varsity spot than there is where you are right now. Okay? For, you know, people who are in high school and want to play in college. There's way less spots open at the college level than there is the high school level. There are way less spots. There's, you know, a coach might bring in five players in a year, and he's got 100,000 potential athletes that he could bring in right there. There are a lot of people who want to be there. And, and there's not a lot of spots there. And at the pro level, it's, it's. At any level of professional basketball, it's the same exact thing going from college to the pros, there's just way less spots, okay? So you have to understand that if your goal is that you want to make it to play college basketball or play in the NBA or play some, some level of professional basketball, but you, you can't stay motivated to go put the work in, then really the answer is you got to go find something else to do because you're not going to get there if you're, if you can't personally stay motivated. Because here's the thing, guys, at whatever that next level is for you, whether that be a competitive varsity high school team a the college level or pro basketball, there's no, like, no one's coming around to motivate you because there's so many other options for you, especially as you get up to the higher levels, there's so many other options that if you can't bring it, then the coaches find somebody else to do it. If it. Let's say, you know, if you're a professional football player, right, or, you know, for you guys who are, I'll just say professional American football, because I know I've got plenty of international viewers. So let's say you're, you know, you're at training camp, right? And you don't feel like practicing that day. You just. Yeah, I don't feel like practicing. I just. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not motivated to practice today. Well, what's going to happen is that you're going to get to practice and you're going to get ran off the field, and then you're going to get cut, and then you're probably never going to get another shot because there's, you know, 10,000 people waiting to take your spot, waiting for one opportunity to take the spot that you just got cut from, okay? So there is no, like, oh, I got to find something to motivate me. It's like, no, I either go get the job done, I either show up and I put the work in or someone else takes my spot. And that's how it is, guys. It's how it is at the professional level and it's how it is at every other level, okay? Even on, at the high school level, if you don't show up and put the work in and it's a competitive program, someone else will come take your spot. And someone else who, who doesn't have an issue staying motivated. They show up to practice every day and they, they, they put the work in because that's what you do, okay? You're never gonna feel like doing it all the time. You're never gonna feel like doing it all the time. Either you bring your own energy and you make yourself do it. You bring your own motivation, or you get cut and they find somebody else. And that's ultimately how it works. That's true for not just basketball, but it's true for any job that you might have. Any job that's out there. Either you get the job done or you don't have a job, right? Either you do the job or you don't have one. That's, that's ultimately what it comes down to. Okay? And again, understand, you may not be a pro right now, but if your goal is a difficult goal where the numbers are not in your favor, you have to understand that it's going to require a pro level approach from you, okay? Where it's not an option to not go get the job done, okay? You go work out, because that's what you do. Because in order to reach my goal, I have to do it, okay? For me, right? If I'm, you know, there again, there's weeks where I don't feel like making a podcast, I don't feel like making a video, but I, I do it right. If I want to, you know, grow on YouTube, I want to grow on Instagram or whatever, like, I have to get it done because no one's gonna make me do it, right? I, I just have to do it. And that's why, you know, a lot of people will start on YouTube, they'll start on whatever they might do, and they'll be with it for, you know, a couple weeks, couple months, and then they're done. Because for maybe some of these reasons, maybe they didn't work smart at it, maybe they didn't set realistic goals, maybe they just didn't truly like it, right? Which is what I'm saying right here. If you can't make yourself do it, right? If you can't either find your own motivation or say, you know, what I'm not motivated, but I'm do it anyway, then it's just not for you, okay? And that's what I've learned for sure, is like, I. I have to bring my own motivation when it comes to this. I have to go and get the job done. Even on the days or the weeks that are. I don't feel like doing it, okay? Like I said, that's. That's the case for literally every single job, okay? At the end of the day, it cannot be optional if you really believe what you tell me. If you DM me, you say, hey, you know what, Coach? I want to do this. I want to play college basketball. I want to play in the NB But I can't. I'm not motivated to do this. Well, either you've got to change your goal or you've got to change your entire mindset about it, because it's not there. There is no room for. There is no room for you to just not do it. Right. There's no room for you to just say, hey, you know, I don't feel like it today, so I guess I'm just not going to do it, okay? Professionals get the job done whether or not they feel like it. Motivation might be there, might not be there. They get up and they go get it done because they understand that if they don't, then they don't have a job, okay? So understand that out there, there's somebody who. There's a lot of people. First of all, there's a lot of people out there who are significantly more talented than you are. Significantly more. Okay. In every area of life, there is always somebody, probably a lot of people who are significantly more talented than you. But also understand there's people who are equally talented to you, and the only difference between them and you is that when they're not motivated, they get the job done anyway. They go work out when they don't feel like it. On the days where it's just not going well for them, they go and they. They do it. They get it done. And that person who might be equally as talented naturally is going to make it above you. If you allow yourself to be a victim of the ebbs and flows of motivation, that's ultimately how it's going to work out. So you have to be able to look at the mirror and say, hey, you know what? Do I really want to do this? Do I really want to be a basketball player? Because if I do, and if I really want to get to where I want to get to, then I have to say, listen, my approach to this is going to be a professional approach. That means that I get it done whether or not I want to. There are going to be days where I want to do it and that's great and there's going to be days where I don't want to and I got to do it anyway. Hopefully this episode gave you guys a good insight on what, what exactly motivation is, what exactly it should mean to you and ultimately what your approach, what your mindset has to be if you want to be as successful as possible. If you guys did enjoy this, like I said at the beginning, go ahead, scroll down on Apple Podcasts, leave a review for me, let me know what you think. I'll read your view on the show when you leave it. If you guys are on YouTube make sure you hit that like and subscribe and give me a follow on Instagram at Vision Driven Basketball as well. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.