How many times have you started a new activity (such as a personal project or exercise routine) with a burst of enthusiasm, only to see that initial momentum evaporate? This often leads to depression and causes us to give up prematurely. I’ve experienced this let down dozens of times myself. But fortunately, with a bit of thought and reflection you can turn this negative emotion around.

The key to harnessing your emotions is understanding them. The natural pattern of human emotion is peaks and valleys. When we start a new project we’re filled with tremendous optimism. All we can think about is the expected benefits, and since we haven’t started yet, we aren’t aware of the difficulties involved. This natural high causes a surge of mental and physical activity. The peak is a great thing because the energy boost gets projects off the ground. If you’re a creative type like me, you know that this period is euphoric. You feel like nothing can stop you.

John Wesley has furthered this research and written a fascinating article investigating the theories behind a loss of momentum and how to combat it.
Click on the following link to find out more.
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/overcoming-the-loss-of-motivation-that-follows-a-surge-of-productivity

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2 Comments »

mike barnett said:
‘Overcoming a Loss of Motivation’ An extremely relevant article for myself, just starting my own business. I think something I have learnt in the past is to always remember the initial objectives of any project. Listening to advice from people whether junior or senior to you can help take these projects to higher grounds above and beyond your own initial vision. Having a vision is essential to the birth of a project, but it is the end the result or the ‘product’ of it is what holds the true value. I always keep telling myself that its passing the line in a race that makes the taking part have any meaning. Never lose sight of the true goal.
5 March 2009 at 4:09 pm

TheWayofMoney said:
Great piece of work here, thanks for sharing!
I used to have a problem finishing things I started because I used to overwhelm myself. I tried to change EVERYTHING at once so the psychological pain caused by going out of my comfort zone eventually became too much to bear.
I discovered what worked for me was to do something 1 baby step at a time, and increase my challenges in very small increments so that I could hardly feel uncomfortable. THAT worked for me.
Thanks again for sharing this post!
Keep up the great work here, A2S team!
Marj
28 April 2009 at 9:06 pm

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