When You Just DON'T WANNA

WE ALL KNOW WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING: cleaning out the closet, hitting the treadmill, getting that résumé done, [fill in your ugh task here].

- ARRICCA ELIN SANSONE

So why don't we do it? Are we simply unmotivated people? The answer, according to experts, is no. "There's a misconception that some people are and others are not motivated, as if it's a personality trait," says Wendy Grolnick, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Clark University and coauthor of Motivation Myth Busters: Science-Based Strategies to Boost Motivation in Yourself and Others. "But there's no scientific evidence that this is true." We're all motivated to do something, she adds, but it's not always the most beneficial thing for us. (For instance, you might be really motivated to eat a slice of chocolate cake for dinner instead of sheet pan salmon with veggies.)

"Motivation" is generally defined as the energy we put toward an activity. But even if it is an activity we want to pursue, maintaining that energy may be challenging. (Anyone who's made a short-lived New Year's resolution can attest to this.) Life gets in our way and can catch us unprepared to see things through to the end. That's why, says Grolnick, "we need strategies to keep our motivation going." Here are the most common motivation killers and how to move past them:

You think the task ahead is harder than it really is.

"What stops us is that we think, This is a big deal!" says Philip Gable, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and brain science and director of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Delaware. "But examine the truth. Cleaning out the closet isn't really that bad. You can break big projects into small ones, like going through the shoes first instead of the whole closet."