Can God give me motivation?

[Skyhighblue34]

My sister just walked up to me and told me “You need to get a life. You’ve can’t sit around doing the same thing every day like you have for the past two years. Get a job, get a license, go do something!”

Of course, I’d been happy all day livin’ my bum style life, but now I feel disheartened.

I’m a very shy person that likes to coop up in my own little world. Whenever I try to do something important, like get my license, I easily lose my way. I don’t have the motivation, and whenever I find it, it is so short lived. I get distracted easily as well.

Is this something God can help me with? Should I just pray really hard to him for help? Or should I just push myself…

In regards to looking for a job, I just can’t summon the courage to ask for the application… Not to mention not having my license first would make getting to that said job even harder.

Any and all advice would be much appreciated!

 

[kykid]

Pray the Rosary and ask for our Lady’s intercession. Never fails me.

 

[Kamaduck]

My sister just walked up to me and told me “You need to get a life. You’ve can’t sit around doing the same thing every day like you have for the past two years. Get a job, get a license, go do something!”

Of course, I’d been happy all day livin’ my bum style life, but now I feel disheartened.

I’m a very shy person that likes to coop up in my own little world. Whenever I try to do something important, like get my license, I easily lose my way. I don’t have the motivation, and whenever I find it, it is so short lived. I get distracted easily as well.

Is this something God can help me with? Should I just pray really hard to him for help? Or should I just push myself…

In regards to looking for a job, I just can’t summon the courage to ask for the application… Not to mention not having my license first would make getting to that said job even harder.

Any and all advice would be much appreciated!

Well, I’m a lot younger than you, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I do struggle with motivation, and I’m also easily distracted.

Firstly, yes, I would pray to God for help. I sometimes ask him to “carry me”, if I really need to do something and can’t summon the strength to do it myself. Sometimes he gives me that strength for a little while.

When I have trouble getting started (or continuing) with something, I ask myself why I can’t work. If there’s something bothering me, I have to either deal with it or make a conscious decision not to worry about it while I’m working. If I’m stressed, sometimes I need to take a break, eat something healthy, exercise, take a nap, or take a shower. Something basic to care for myself. If there’s a specific fear or thing that’s blocking me, I can’t just ignore it and “push myself”. I have to deal with the problem.

Of course, that assumes that I have a specific goal in mind. I’m still in school, so it’s easy to know what has to get done. In your case, I think a plan would be the best place to start. Think of a goal, and then think of a specific plan to achieve that goal. Break the plan up into steps that are small enough that you can manage them, and then get started on the steps that you can do.

 

[HoneyBea]

I struggle with motivation at times. I think we all do and yes God can and will give you motivation but I suggest opening yourself up to how God wants to work in you.

Also, you say you don’t have a job? That’s not necessarily a bad thing unless of course you can’t feed, shelter and clothe yourself. I don’t have a job, but my husband does and he supports us, so I have no need for one. If you also have no need for one and your happy in your little world I don’t necessarily think there is anything wrong with that. Many people are recluses and devote much of theirs lives in solitude and prayer. However, the fact that you are bothered by your sisters comments might suggest there is some genuine desire for you to do more. I would pray about it and take little steps. I can kind of relate because I too enjoy my solitude and the comforts of my home. If I lived on a farm with wide open spaces I may never leave lol my situation is a bit different however as I am also extremely social and do very well in social settings the problem is I just don’t care I’m perfectly happy at home as well.

Maybe you don’t really want to get your license? Perhaps you can use this time if praying for motivation to discover what you can be passionate about it. Combining prayer with research might reveal something to you new.

I will include you in my prayers today : )

 

[RoseMary131]

My sister just walked up to me and told me “You need to get a life. You’ve can’t sit around doing the same thing every day like you have for the past two years. Get a job, get a license, go do something!”

Of course, I’d been happy all day livin’ my bum style life, but now I feel disheartened.

I’m a very shy person that likes to coop up in my own little world. Whenever I try to do something important, like get my license, I easily lose my way. I don’t have the motivation, and whenever I find it, it is so short lived. I get distracted easily as well.

Speak with your doctor and ask your doctor to refer you for therapy.

Discovering why you are happy in your bum life style, why you like to live cooped up in your own world, no motivation, get distracted easily - can help you really understand the underlying cause and help you change your way of thinking.

Good for your sister for realizing you can not keep living this life style. Tell her she is right and ask her if she’ll go with you to the doctor.

May God lead you to the right person to help you understand the reason you get so easily distract and choose to be alone with little motivation.

 

[EasterJoy]

A few thoughts:

You might have some sort of attention-deficit disorder, and even if you don’t, you might find the skills that people with that mental make-up need to stay on track will be useful to you. Consider looking into books by Edward Hallowell. Your library probably has them, and he also has online resources and self-tests. If the self-tests indicate that you might have attention deficit disorder, by all means find a professional to check you out. Otherwise, look to that skill set to see if it might help you impose order on yourself, without the therapy and perhaps medication that someone who has a diagnosable condition needs.

God has a plan for you…who are you serving? If you find that a hidden life suits you, there is nothing wrong with that, but if God wanted you to act like a houseplant, he’d have made you a houseplant. Your service can be hidden, it can be low-key, it can be structured by someone else, it may involve never learning to drive because you walk and use public transportation (and do not expect others to be your personal driver), but it is going to involve doing something that benefits someone else.

It will also use at least some of the talents that God gave you. Think about those.

If you are hard-working once you get going, like to spend time in prayer, and do not mind letting someone else direct you, you might even have a vocation to a contemplative order. That is not a place to be lazy–they work! It is a place where they are free of the need to “get ahead” or “measure up”. If you are quite willing to work and quite willing to spend time in prayer, but don’t have the kind of ambitions that the world looks for, well, maybe you are one of those simple souls who will be very happy in a monastery. I can’t tell from your post, because I have no way of knowing what your sister means “get a life”. Certainly if you want to go into a monastery or the military or most of the places where adults go with the hopes of a happy sort of structure, it won’t be something anybody would describe as “bumming”. I’m just suggesting the sort of motivation that might actually set your soul on fire. That is the ticket.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

My sister just walked up to me and told me “You need to get a life. You’ve can’t sit around doing the same thing every day like you have for the past two years. Get a job, get a license, go do something!”

Of course, I’d been happy all day livin’ my bum style life, but now I feel disheartened.

I’m a very shy person that likes to coop up in my own little world. Whenever I try to do something important, like get my license, I easily lose my way. I don’t have the motivation, and whenever I find it, it is so short lived. I get distracted easily as well.

Is this something God can help me with? Should I just pray really hard to him for help? Or should I just push myself…

In regards to looking for a job, I just can’t summon the courage to ask for the application… Not to mention not having my license first would make getting to that said job even harder.

Any and all advice would be much appreciated!

I hope that you aren’t 34! Yes, you’re sister is right. Start with setting prayer times and stick to it. Thirty minutes twice or three times a day is fine. Go to Church every day if you don’t have a job and walk if you have to. Get you license, now!!! Start applying for jobs, anything decent and reasonable and in a safe location with bus service. Get daily exercise, walking is fine. Get a hobby.

Linus2nd

 

[Skyhighblue34]

Speak with your doctor and ask your doctor to refer you for therapy.

Discovering why you are happy in your bum life style, why you like to live cooped up in your own world, no motivation, get distracted easily - can help you really understand the underlying cause and help you change your way of thinking.

Good for your sister for realizing you can not keep living this life style. Tell her she is right and ask her if she’ll go with you to the doctor.

May God lead you to the right person to help you understand the reason you get so easily distract and choose to be alone with little motivation.

Haha very funny, I have a psychologist brother for that.

 

[Skyhighblue34]

A few thoughts:

You might have some sort of attention-deficit disorder, and even if you don’t, you might find the skills that people with that mental make-up need to stay on track will be useful to you. Consider looking into books by Edward Hallowell. Your library probably has them, and he also has online resources and self-tests. If the self-tests indicate that you might have attention deficit disorder, by all means find a professional to check you out. Otherwise, look to that skill set to see if it might help you impose order on yourself, without the therapy and perhaps medication that someone who has a diagnosable condition needs.

God has a plan for you…who are you serving? If you find that a hidden life suits you, there is nothing wrong with that, but if God wanted you to act like a houseplant, he’d have made you a houseplant. Your service can be hidden, it can be low-key, it can be structured by someone else, it may involve never learning to drive because you walk and use public transportation (and do not expect others to be your personal driver), but it is going to involve doing something that benefits someone else.

It will also use at least some of the talents that God gave you. Think about those.

If you are hard-working once you get going, like to spend time in prayer, and do not mind letting someone else direct you, you might even have a vocation to a contemplative order. That is not a place to be lazy–they work! It is a place where they are free of the need to “get ahead” or “measure up”. If you are quite willing to work and quite willing to spend time in prayer, but don’t have the kind of ambitions that the world looks for, well, maybe you are one of those simple souls who will be very happy in a monastery. I can’t tell from your post, because I have no way of knowing what your sister means “get a life”. Certainly if you want to go into a monastery or the military or most of the places where adults go with the hopes of a happy sort of structure, it won’t be something anybody would describe as “bumming”. I’m just suggesting the sort of motivation that might actually set your soul on fire. That is the ticket.

Funny you should mention, I do indeed have ADD. What has that got to do with it?

 

[RoseMary131]

Haha very funny, I have a psychologist brother for that.

Have you asked your brother to help you or is your brother waiting for you to come to him?

Ask your brother for information on ADD and how it disrupts your lifestyle.

 

[EasterJoy]

Funny you should mention, I do indeed have ADD. What has that got to do with it?

Are you kidding me? Just because we have trouble staying on task does not mean that Heaven does not have a task for us to do. Treatment for ADD is meant to give the tools to set goals and reach them, because we all have things we need to do, whether we feel all jazzed up about anything in particular or not. “I was hungry and you fed me” doesn’t imply that the righteous actually feel like doing the work of feeding the least ones. A good life requires doing good things, not just avoiding bad things.

Your life is not about you. My life is not about me. Jesus Christ saved the world by giving humanity a second chance to turn their lives over to the will of God. Hell is having lives that revolve around ourselves. I don’t know what your sister means by “get a life”, but that is what baptism means by “get a life”. People don’t talk about it much any more, but sloth is still a sin.

Look up “acedia”. (Here is an accessible piece about it: onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/09/got_acedia_who_cares.html) It is the sin to which we people with an ADD brain are probably the most prone. It is our duty to fight against it, whether or not we are ultimately successful in beating it before we die. We still have to do our best!

In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat. We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food. But you, brothers, do not be remiss in doing good. 2 Thess 3:10-13