But there’s a big difference between a desire, a hope, or a dream to do something, and really doing something. And the difference is wanting something enough to feel ready to take action.

Whatever your dream is, the starting point of how to begin the journey of making that dream into a reality all starts from the same place: It comes from a decision to just go for it.

So how do you start following your dream?
Go all in. Make that commitment to yourself and say: Yes! I am just going to do this! I’m going to take action and take the first step in the direction of this dream. Even if it is the first step of many many steps, every journey starts with a single step.

If you’ve learned how to swim and always look up at the high diving board dreaming of what it would be like to jump off it; stop overthinking it and just go for it! You’ve climbed up the high diving board and looked off the edge of it, wondering if you should jump or not for long enough. Just jump. You know how to swim; you have and know everything you need to know in order to survive the jump. So allow yourself to enjoy the exhilaration of doing something exciting that makes you feel alive and brave. Allow yourself to make your dreams come true. Allow yourself to just go for it!

References:
“All in” video by Aaron Anastasi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8q2eEAeFmM

It’s very common to hear people waking up in a toasty, warm bed, pulling the covers over their head and saying “I don’t want to wake up! I don’t want to leave this bed!”

It’s true that this could be simply because of the joy of feeling cosy, comfortable and relaxed all snuggled up under your duvet and wanting to prolong that delicious feeling for as long as possible, but for some it may come from another origin: not knowing why to get up in the morning. For these people, they may be going through a rough patch and may be feeling a little bit depressed about things, particularly their purpose in life. This article explores suggestions for why you do get up in the morning so that if you are feeling down, maybe a few of these ideas will motivate you to get up next time you’re starting your day.

Why do you get up in the morning?

1.) You get up in the morning because you CAN

We get up everyday because we can. We have been blessed with the opportunity to create a life for ourselves and make it the best life that we can. But how do we do that? How do you find the motivation to get up because you WANT to and not just because you can?

Getting up in the morning is all about motivation. You need something to motivate you enough to get out of bed and start your day. So what motivates you?

2.) You get up in the morning to achieve Desires, Goals & bucket list items

Knowing what you don’t want and knowing what you DO want:

Desires to do certain things can motivate you to get out of bed in the morning. If you’re thinking “there’s nothing I want to do!” or “I don’t know what I want!”, then there’s good news for you: Every time you know that you don’t want something, you automatically are one step closer to knowing what you do want.

For example: If you know that you don’t want to work in the city amongst thousands of workers working in a tiny cubicle, you can start figuring out what you do want. Maybe this suggests you want to work in a smaller company that’s got fewer workers and a friendlier environment. Maybe it means that you know that you want to work somewhere that’s comfortable and spacious – maybe even working outdoors. You see how knowing what you don’t want can help you figure out what you do want?

Turn push factors into pull factors

There are two categories of motivating factors for getting us to get out of bed in the morning and live our lives: push factors and pull factors.

Push factors are those things which push us in an uncomfortable way to get stuff done, usually out of fear and shame. It is the metaphorical whip that drives you into action. I’ll give you a few examples of push factors that motivate people to get up in the morning:

• Fear of homelessness
• Fear of poverty and related issues including hunger, poor lifestyle, few luxuries, little opportunity for fun
• Fear of disappointing others, usually parents, guardians, partners and children
• Fear of looking bad to society and being labelled with negative labels like “lazy”, “useless” etc.
• Fear of being alone and lonely
• Fear of wasting your life away

A better-feeling motivator would be a pull factor, which draws us into doing things like a sugar lump can entice a horse to move forward towards it. All push factors can be pivoted into pull factors.

There can be lots of other good pull factors which usually take the form of goals and bucket list items of things you really want to do. Goals can be as general or as specific as you want to make them. Here are a few examples of goals that can help motivate you to wake up and make things happen:

• Specific Goals:
  • Desire to learn a new skill because it looks like fun (play a musical instrument, learn a language, learn an art or craft)
  • Desire to see and experience certain things in the world (eg swimming with dolphins, dining at a top restaurant, visiting a natural wonder in the world, hearing a certain performer perform live, experiencing what love feels like, experiencing adventures, thrills and excitement)
  • Desire to help a certain cause in the world
• General Goals:
  • Desire to feel good
  • Desire to feel happy
  • Desire to feel useful
  • Desire to feel free
  • Desire to create new things
  • Desire to expand and grow personally and spiritually

For more ideas on life goals see this article: Life Goals

If you don’t know what your goals are, sit down and make a list for yourself. Then pin it up somewhere you can see it near your bed to remind yourself of all the reasons you have to get up in the morning, because every day you can take a step forward towards meeting these goals. It can give more purpose and motivation to doing your job and earning money and can help you feel better about your days.

3.) You get up in the morning to experience all the joys of life and to follow your fun

Goals aside, there are lots of little things in life which can give great joy and satisfaction. Sometimes these little things can give a clue to our true passion in life and sometimes they are simply moments of appreciation that we experience, which feel good.

When you wake up in the morning, if you have little joys to look forward to, it can help motivate you to get out of bed.

Examples of everyday joys and treats to look forward to:

• Beautiful sights e.g. seeing the sun rise and set with glorious colors, enjoying the experience of matching an outfit and looking good in the mirror
• Wonderful sounds e.g. hearing a tune you love or playing an instrument yourself.
• Delicious tastes e.g. that first taste of warm coffee in the morning, or of melted butter on perfectly toasted bread.
• Pleasant sensations e.g. a hug from a loved one and other physical intimacy; joy of dance,
• Fun experiences with people: enjoying a laugh with a friend or loved one, sharing interesting and intellectually stimulating conversations, enjoying the feelings of acceptance and stimulation.
• Fun experiences with animals: the joy of cuddling up with your pet, the fun of playing with an animal
• Enjoyable entertainment: e.g. reading a good book, seeing a good movie, playing a fun computer game,
• Creativity: making art, writing a story, poem or your thoughts on a certain topic.
• Excitement and thrills: The thrill of riding a motorbike to work or the little thrilled feeling in your stomach when you jump just as an elevator comes to a stop.
• Flow: Enjoying those moments when you’re in a state of flow and everything seems to come easily and before you know it, hours have passed and you’ve barely noticed because you were enjoying the productive flow so much.

It may be a good idea to make a list of all the things you find fun or have enjoyed doing in the past and putting that besides your goal list to look at in the morning.

It may be helpful to start your list with morning-things that are most likely to immediately resonate with you in the morning. Things like “enjoying your dog waking you up in the morning”, “enjoying seeing the beautiful colors of the sunrise”, “enjoying picking out an outfit, getting dressed and looking smart” “enjoying the taste of coffee”, “enjoying the taste of melting butter of freshly toasted bread”, “enjoying listening to some great tunes as you walk to work listening to your ipod” or “enjoying the feeling of driving your motorbike to work” etc.

Sometimes there are things that you think seem fun but you need to muster the courage to try them. It may be being brave enough to do that bungee jump you’ve always wanted to experience or even a matter of gathering your courage to go to a singing lesson. You ARE brave enough to do them, it’s just a matter of pushing past the initial resistance. Stop thinking of all the reasons not to do it, and just think of how fun it could be, – concentrate on the positives – rev yourself up and do it!

4.) You wake up in the morning to experience expansion

As humans we all have a desire to expand and grow, be it in experiences (wanting to experience a lot of different sights, sounds, tastes and feelings), knowledge, to better the world, or to better yourself through personal development or spiritual growth. That need to grow and expand within specific fields can be a great motivator to get up in the morning.

5.) Get out of bed because chances are, if you get out of bed, things will get better

If you don’t want to get up in the morning because life is really bad right now, keep in mind that things can turn around – even today! Things can start feeling better!

Often, when we go through tough times, we come out the other end stronger. A perfect example of this is the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle who found himself feeling purposeless and depressed as a university student and just at the point of declaring that he couldn’t live with himself anymore, that’s when he had a spiritual aha moment that changed his life forever, giving his life a renewed sense of purpose and filling him with a sense of peace and appreciation.

One way to get yourself going is to tell yourself that you can start working towards a goal for 10 minutes and then you can stop if you like. Chances are you’ll want to continue once you get going, and then you’re out of bed and feeling better.

If you’re looking to make your own life goals list, below is an example life goals list to help you come up with yours.

In order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by long lists of goals, you can asterisk the top 10 goals that you most want to achieve and focus on those first. I’d recommend picking some realistic easy-to-accomplish ones within your top 10 and if you have bigger goals that seem more tricky to achieve, I’d suggest breaking down that goal into baby sized achievable steps you’d need to take to enable you to reach it. As you achieve certain goals you can cross them off the list and of course you can always add new goals as new desires arise.

Without further ado, here is an example life goals list to help get you started with yours:

Money life Goals

• I want to have enough income to live comfortably and be able to buy anything I want freely.
  You can expand on this goal by defining what “live comfortably” means for you:
  - Have an income of X amount of dollars a month / year
  - Live in a nice house
  - Live in comfortable temperature (heating / air conditioning)
  - Have a great car
  - Be able to afford to go on holiday twice a year to exotic locations
  - Be able to afford to eat out in restaurants whenever I want
  - Be able to afford to go out to the cinema, theater and concerts whenever I want
  - Be able to afford to take whichever hobby classes I want
  - Be able to afford to study whatever I want
  - Be able to afford to treat myself to pampering whenever I want
• Have enough income to give a certain amount of dollars to charity each year

Career life Goals

• I want to experience what it’s like to work in [insert field here]
  Examples: Movie industry, music industry, law, medicine, art, sport etc
• I want to experience what it’s like to reach [this level job title] within [this field]
• I want to experience what it’s like to build my own business from scratch

Family & Relationship life Goals

• I’d like to build a secure and loving relationship with a romantic partner
• I’d like to have a loving family of my own and experience raising children
• I’d like to spend at least X days a week socializing with friends/ family
• I’d like to have a family reunion every X years with my family
• I’d like to have a reunion every X years with my school friends.
• I’d like to  own my dream pet
• I’d like to own egg-laying chickens
• I’d like to know my family history and family tree.
• I’d like to experience a blind date

Educational life Goals

• I want a [insert level] qualification in [insert subject here]
  eg high school diploma, bachelor degree, master degree, phd, etc
• I want to satisfy my curiosity on the subjects that interest me (e.g. history / geography / cultural fun facts / etymology / understanding psychology / body language / understanding health)
• I want to know how to do [insert subject here].
  Example subjects: photography, acting, playing an instrument, stock market, knitting, how to do CPR, play golf, sewing, jewelry making, snowboarding, dancing, speaking another language, surfing,  gardening, cooking, making your own wine / beer / cheese / chocolate , sailing, juggling,  how to survive in the wilderness etc.

Personal development life goals

• Increasing happiness and contentment
• Overcoming fears: I’d like to feel comfortable even when [insert situation].
• Increasing confidence
• Feel comfortable giving a speech in front of a crowd
• Increasing calm and peace: Goals to help achieve this could include meditation practices.
• Improve certain social skills

 Physical life goals

• I’d like to achieve my ideal body weight
• I’d like to eat healthily
• I’d like to have a regular exercise regime
• I’d like to run a marathon

Fun & experiential life goals

• Write (and publish) a book / movie screenplay / play
• Be published about in a newspaper / magazine at least once
• Make a website
• Make a successful film / short film / drama production
• Make a song that thousands of others will enjoy
• Paint a public art mural
• Play in a band / orchestra
• Meet [insert inspirational person here]
  eg movie star, celebrity, politician, singer, spiritual leader
• See the world, and above all I’d love to travel to [insert countries or places here]
  eg Disney world, Venice, Edinbugh, the Caribbean, European landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the tower of Pisa etc
• Dine in the world’s finest restaurants – make a list of places you’d like to experience.
• Taste very type of cuisine in the world: British, American, Italian, French, Peruvian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Afghani, Khazak, German, Austrian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, , Russian, Israli, Arab, African, Jamaican, Chilean, Argentinian, Brazilian, etc etc etc
• Try adventurious things like mountain climbing / water skiing / skiing / tobogganing / bungee jumping / white water rafting / sky diving / scuba diving / hang gliding/ gliding / parasailing / indoor skydiving / [insert experience here]
• Try every sport you ever wanted to try: Experience what it’s like to play tennis / badmington / ping pong / football/ archery / darts / insert sport here. (For ideas for more sports you can try check out this list)
• Play all the games you’ve ever wanted to play – word games, acting games, drawing games, board games, card games.
• Solve a rubicks cube
• Finish a jigsaw puzzle
• Finish a 3D jigsaw puzzle
• Pet a dog / cat / elephant / chick/ dolphin / shark /  [insert animal here]
• Ride a horse / elephant / camel / [insert animal here]
• Milk a cow
• Ride in a dream car / plane/ speedboat / jet ski / helicopter / hot air balloon / limo/ motorbike /
• Grow your own fruit / vegetables from scratch
• Be on TV in a game show / as an extra in a show / in the audience / etc
• Be in the audience of a baseball game / football match / olympic games / wimbledon [insert your interest here]
• Go to at least one red carpet event, Nobel prize ceremony, Oscar ceremony or [insert ceremony you'd like to attend]
• Read all the books on a top 100 book list of your choice
• See all the movies on the top 100 movies list of your choice
• Watch at least one movie from each country that has made a movie.
• Experience tapping a tree for syrup.
• Try camping  and experience roasting marshmallows on a fire and sleeping out under the stars
• Watch the top 10 (or more!) musicals in the world – make a list of the ones you want to see.
• Go to an acting class at least once just for the fun of it
• Go to a singing class at least once
• Experience the celebrations of other cultures around the world eg Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwana, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, etc etc
• Fly a kite
• Experience karaoke
• Experience a nude beach
• Experience a live fireworks display at least once
• Experience a massage
• Experience spa  treatments at least once e.g. deep tissue massage, hot stone massage, try a massage chair
• Visit all the top movie studios in the world (Universal, Paramount, etc)
• Visit the Birthplace or home of a historic or cultural figure that you respect and feel inspired by
• Visit an star observatory at least once
•  Experience weightlessness e.g. go on a vomit comet

World-related life goals

• Invent something that helps make the world a better place



• Inspire people through your writing / speeches / movies / [insert method here] to make the world a better place
• Help clean up the world to make it a more beautiful place
• Create art in public places (murals / sculptures / artistic floral arrangements / landscaping) to make the world a more beautiful place
• At least once in your life, give a generous cheque / donation to a good cause that you believe in – that will make a difference to them.
• Donate your time to help charities on a regular basis
• At least once in your life take part in a peaceful demonastration to raise awareness for a certain cause you believe in.

All of us have days when we really don’t feel like doing anything. It’s normal and ok to feel that way. But if you’re not enjoying this feeling, there is lots you can do to start feeling better right now! How do you start feeling more excited and motivated about things when you just don’t feel like doing anything? Here are a few ideas:

1.) Get ideas:
Visit a “stuff to do when you’re bored” or “what to do when you don’t know what to do” article for ideas. Maybe one of the ideas you read will grab your fancy, you never know!

2.) Reconnect with you goals and take a small step towards them:
Most of us have some long-term life goals, whether it’s a money-goal, relationship-goal, humanitarian-goal, personal-development goal or anything else. Even during the times when you don’t feel like doing anything, deep down, those goals are still something you want to do.

Depending on what you feel like doing most, here are two ideas to help you reconnect with feeling like doing something towards these goals again:

(a.) Take a piece of paper and start listing reasons why you want to reach your goal. Sometimes reminding yourself of why reaching a goal will be good can start getting the motivation and passion flowing.

(b.) Use your time to start doing something that works towards your long term or short term goals, even if you don’t feel like it. Choose a small, easy activity that will generally benefit your goal. Every journey starts with a single step no matter how small. Maybe once you start, you’ll start feeling like doing more of it – plus you get closer towards your goals.

3.) Use the opportunity to get practical stuff done:
Start doing something that works towards something you need to do at some point but you haven’t had the time to do it yet, eg picking out an early birthday present for a family member or friend, or choosing places in the world you’d like to visit and start planning a travel plan.

4.) Reconnect with fun and take small steps towards it:
Just start doing something that you know you’ve enjoyed in the past (e.g. a hobby, go for a walk in a beautiful place, meet or call a friend) even if it doesn’t particularly contribute towards any goals per se. Maybe once you start, you’ll find that soon you’re feeling better and enjoying yourself. Sometimes you just have to push beyond the resistance to find the fun.

5.) Connect with an uplifting person
Sometimes when you connect with another individual who *is* feeling motivated to do stuff, just spending time with them can help lift you into a similar vibration. This may be a family member you can talk to, a friend or even a stranger from the internet. All can be catalysts to help you feel better and more motivated to start doing something.

6.) Hang out in a new place
Sometimes changing up the routine and spending time in a new place can provide a different energy and vibe which can get ideas flowing and can get motivation going. This can mean taking a walk outside somewhere, or it can mean hanging out in a different room in the house than you normally do.

7.) Do nothing in style!
Sometimes the feeling of doing nothing is there because you may be overworked and genuinely need a break. So relax, and if you feel like doing nothing, make the most of it and enjoy it! Do nothing in a way that feels the best. For example, maybe you can do nothing whilst listening to some feel good songs, watch your favorite tv show or some feel good videos on youtube, or maybe you could relax in a cosy bubble bath, maybe with a magazine or something, and start enjoying the sensations of the warm bubbles around you to start feeling better. You may want to do nothing whilst spending time in a fresh environment, especially if it’s a nice day out – like in a pretty park – just absorb the sunshine, listen to the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves and enjoy the nature around you. Or maybe you can put on a relaxation CD or do progressive muscle relaxation to feel calm and accepting of the “doing nothing” situation. Another idea is to meditate. All these can feel great!