What kind of person do you want to be?

In times of crisis, experiencing a low mood, or feeling less than optimal, our minds tend to focus on quickly getting rid of unpleasant emotions. We often resort to quick methods of regulating emotions or wait for our mood to improve. This is entirely normal – our body and mind are not big fans of discomfort 🙂 It’s not an easy situation to build motivation for action. However, we can treat this experience as an opportunity to reflect on our goals and values. We can understand values as a “guiding star,” an answer to the questions: “What kind of person do I want to be?” “What do I care about?” “What makes me live life on my own terms?”
Do I want to be a person who waits for something to happen? Do I want to make a change in my life? Can I do something now to make my life better? By asking these questions, we can think about our long-term goals and the qualities and habits we want to develop in ourselves. Knowing them, we can evoke them in moments of low motivation and frustration.

Knowing what kind of person I want to be will make it easier for me to work on a new habit. Creating a new habit, such as completing tasks, requires regular practice, regardless of receiving an immediate reward. When the new habit becomes ingrained, it will be easier for us to perform it, even when we don’t feel like it and are tired. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every task will be done with a smile on our face 🙂

Taking action in line with our values, despite low motivation, often allows us to discover that we are capable of doing things we thought were impossible.
Exercise: “I want to be a person who….”

Do you need help working on your motivation? Seek the assistance of a psychologist. Contact us if you are looking for a cognitive-behavioral psychologist or psychotherapist in Krakow or online. In our offices in Krakow, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is available. We also work in Third Wave approaches (including schema therapy, dialectical-behavioral therapy DBT, acceptance and commitment therapy ACT).

Reading: Robert L. Leahy “Beat the Blues Before They Beat You”