Daily motivation

For months my doctor pressed me to take antidepressants, and there came a day I knew if I didn’t give it a try, what would happen? Well, I took my first dose, and a second, followed by a very intense neurological reaction to the drug. I began to hallucinate, went in to a panic attack, managed to call my mom and told her I wasn’t sure where I was...(I was at home.) I have never been so scared.

Antidepressants clearly were not the answer, but I wasn’t ready to give up. The following week, after I recovered from the side effects of the medication, I made a promise to myself to spend 5-10 minutes being active every day.

The first few days I was literally dragging myself out of bed, slithering like a snake from the bed on to the floor.

It started with a few push ups, back to bed.

Then a few push ups, some crunches, and back to bed.

Several weeks went by, I was doing push ups, sit ups, and squats in sets of 15...and not always going back to bed.

I began to take breaks throughout the day just to get in to a plank and focus on my breath. Next thing I knew, I was back to doing yoga with 20-30 minute flows like I used to years ago.

The past 2 weeks I have been doing push ups, sit ups, and squats in sets of 25, 2-3 times a day, at night I follow with a flow, then I find myself dancing around my apartment like a teenage girl for an hour.

I had to go to a family thing this past weekend - I put on a skirt I bought 2 years ago and had never worn, then heels I had never felt “fit me.” This outfit was made to make a statement, one I had never felt comfortable to make before, but I looked down and thought “THIS IS ME?!” I saw my calves poking out of my legs!!

Just 2 months ago I was literally sliding out of bed, eyes heavy from tears, hardly able to hold myself up, and it was “normal” for me.

Small steps, it’s better than nothing...even if that’s all you do for months...it’s better than nothing.



https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c5l2o1/text_right_now_i_am_the_resistance_i_am/








https://mtlynch.io/status-updates-to-nobody/





https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c5kh3r/text_what_comes_easy_wont_last_what_lasts_wont/


https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c5h0qv/discussion_ive_got_multiple_issues_why_i_cant_get/

Actually failed this more or less lol. I don't see it how I can pass my oral exams (mathematics student here), as I was REALLY lazy during this semester and have done NOTHING in order to prepare myself for those exams (I already failed the first take, now I have to resit in one week, if I still fail I can resit for one more time in September).

"NOTHING" mean literally laying in my bed, binge-watching YouTube, chatting on Facebook/WhatsApp. I barely passed my written exams (literally barely), but oral exams are much harder.

I tried to improvise during the first take of my oral exam, but it's foolproof, the profesor will ask you such detailed questions that it's absolutely impossible to pass it by solely improvising.

The thing is: I finally got it that I have to change.

I've heard that "chaning your environment radically" can be the best solution if you can't discipline yourself (or motivate yourself). It's true, for me at least, if I would be in a room, without any Internet or any other sort of entertainment (and let's say I would only have some study material in my room, like books or something) then after some minutes/hours I would get so bored that I would start studying, because it would be better than to sit and do nothing.

I felt in love with this idea, because intuintively, I understood that this might be THE solution for me. For other people it might not work, I don't know, but there's something inside of me that's telling me "This is what you gotta do".

But as beautiful as it sounds, the problem is: How on earth should I turn off radically YouTube and Social Media if I need them? I need sometimes YouTube (like KhanAcademy or 3Blue1Brown) to understand mathematical concepts (e.g. so I can visualize them and understand them more intuitively). I also need Social Media, to know if there'll be something important happening or if a lecture will not be taking place. Also, If I need some of my friend's help, I gotta ask them online sometimes.

So, as much as I just would love to exclude YouTube and Social Media from my life, I simply can't afford it. But I nevertheless need to RADICALLY change my environment. I feel that if I would try to "moderate my use of YouTube and Social Media" sooner or later I would give in and I'll be back at field one.

So does anyone have some ideas what I could do? I was thinking about something like "spending the whole day in the library if you'll be studying". But just out of curiosity, does anyone else have other ideas or suggestions what I could do? What if the library would be closed?

Another problem I got is low energy levels. I literally can't have deep sleep, I feel like I haven't had any sleep for like one week, I drink a lot of caffeine to do anything at all. I don't know. I know that something must be wrong with my lifestyle. Waking up veeery late (around 11 am), not eating breakfast (my problem is that I can't eat breakfast because I need to throw up then, BUT if I do eat breakfast I feel better), not doing any sports (what would you recommend?). I am completely open to suggestions of a lifestyle change which will bring me more energy. Also my diet is mainly Fast Food, what's also not optimal as I guess... (I can't cook, cooking takes a lot of time so I would need something which doesn't require cooking, something I can still buy "ready to eat" or which requires very little cooking only)

I really need some advice. I NEED to make a change.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c55wwj/discussion_this_amotivated_state_ive_been_in/

I'm a 24 year old, masters dropout and serial procrastinator. I've been interested in ecology but haven't read a single scientific paper in over a year. I make plans to do stuff that probably would get me out of this state but I never really get down to doing things eventually. When it really comes down to doing anything, even things that interest me, it feels like there's this massive chasm I have to cross and that freaks the hell out of me. I think that the biggest issue here is this acute lack of motivation to do anything. It's almost as if I'm just not interested in doing anything however much better that will make me feel.

Although I've felt this way for almost as long as I remember, it wasn't so hard to do stuff that was important earlier. I could work or read for stuff in school to some extent although I now feel I could have done a lot better then. Now, especially since I got into my bachelors and masters programs, I found myself extremely disinterested in attending classes, doing assignments, or submitting stuff on time. I found my second semester during masters so hard that the day before the exams, I actually went and told one of my professors that I was just unable to remember anything and that I didn't feel prepared to attend the exams.

I used to play a few instruments, sketch, paint, read stuff, blog, and play a lot of basketball but I can't get myself to do any of those things now.

Its been more than a year since then during which I've been trying to work with therapists (three of them in fact) based on what that same professor suggested. I could never get down to doing even the simpler things that they had suggested as part of CBT. I was on medication for about 6 months (Escitalopram and low doses of Amisulpride) but that didn't seem to help and so my psychiatrist suggested that I don't continue with it. Now I've effectively quit working with the third therapist and am sitting at home doing really nothing at all.

My parents have been of great support in these times but I never really had a good relationship with them on account of being extremely non-vocal about anything with them (probably because I felt that they gave me very little attention as a kid and because I never felt like I could trust them - they used to beat me once in a while only to discipline me but those incidents left me feeling really unloved and alone). I never really had good friends - people who I could talk to when I was low. I used to look to my grandmother for support in the sense that I would tell myself that she would always be there for me even if no one else was but then she passed away 9 years back and I don't think I've ever really had anyone that I trusted that way ever since.

Now, it's been about six months since I've been staying at home and not doing anything. My parents have been trying to get me down to doing something productive. I now have an offer to work on a very interesting species, in a landscape that I find interesting but have made no progress with writing up a proposal (not to mention reading up the literature on the topic).

I really want to get back in the game (more like just get into it!) and I'm tired of feeling like having nothing to do. Please help me! Anyone who's gotten themselves out of this or helped others with this, I would really value your inputs.

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EDIT: this is my main profile. I don't mean to mine karma with this. I want it here so that I can look back at this later if ever I run into this kind of thing again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c5ivl4/text_your_ideas_are_probably_good/


https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/c59itg/text_humans_invented_giving_up/

Remember that.