Welcome to the Valley of Despair
O.K.M. Series - Motivation 2
We all have been through this. You start a new, very exciting project. Full of ambition and motivation, you begin to work relentlessly to complete it.
But the more you work, the harder the task seems to be. Your energy starts draining as fatigue begins to kick in. Meanwhile, unforeseen difficulties force you to work harder while making compromises over your initial idea of the project’s output, which starts to feel degraded and frankly less motivating.
Come to think of it, at this stage you are really tempted to give up.
Welcome to the “Valley of Despair”. Now, let’s get you out of there.
The “Valley of Despair” is a dangerously pessimistic mindset that can push you to give up on a project although you have the means to complete it, provided that you remain motivated. This article provides advice on how to exit this mindset.
Author’s precision: of course, you may possibly encounter situations when unforeseen difficulties turn into complete show stoppers for your projects, and it is important to know how to recognize those situations in order to cut your costs and disengage.
However, what this article tackles is that distinct situation when you give up, not because of a reasonably weighted decision, but because your perception of the problems was so flawed in pessimism that you walked away from it - although in fact all it would have taken from you is a bit more perseverance.
Step 1 - Reach awareness
Admitting that you are in a “Valley of Despair” scenario is a first, strong progress toward getting out of it. On occasions, it can even by itself suffice to overcome the situation.
Indeed, knowing this simple fact alone can already offset your perception of the situation toward a less discouraging view. This allows you to recognize your own pessimistic bias and to consciously compensate for it.
Step 2 - Anticipate on unforeseen work
Desperation may often come from the fact that the todolist of your project seems to never empty. The more tasks you complete, the more new unforeseen ones appear. This gives a false impression that the project is not progressing at all.
In order to cancel that impression and to shield against the depletion of motivation that it induces, we can adopt a different view of what the project represents in terms of tasks and workload.
Once we recognize that: Sum of required tasks = Foreseen tasks + Unforeseen tasks, where Unforeseen tasks cannot be precisely quantified, we understand that:
- Your project’s todolist only accounts for the Foreseen tasks, hence it cannot be viewed as a reliable indicator of the project’s progression,
- Discovering Unforeseen tasks actually is a form of progression, as it gives you more visibility on what the Sum of required tasks is actually constituted of.
Additionally, expecting Unforeseen tasks allows to better react when those are revealed, by objectively adding those to your todolist rather than by experiencing their appearance as an irritation.
Note: the amount of Unforeseen tasks depends on your experience regarding the type of project that you are achieving. Obviously, the more knowledgeable you are about that type of project, the larger the proportion of tasks you will foresee in advance among the Sum of required tasks.
Step 3 - Set, target and achieve quick wins
You should set quick win objectives for yourself to target. Quick win objectives present two benefits:
- They are less discouraging to go after, as they are, by definition, quickly attainable and easier to achieve that the entire project altogether.
- Achieving those objectives provides a perception of progression as well as a sensation of accomplishment. Those feelings, when experienced, boost your motivation and optimism back up.
Applying the three above recommendations should help in benefiting from subjective positive thoughts, which drive your motivation, while pushing back subjective negative ones, which bring your morale down.
To conclude, I would encourage you to consider some current projects of yours. Are you now in a “Valley of Despair” scenario? - If so, I hope that this article helps you out, while wishing you perseverance and success.
This article belongs to the O.K.M. Series (Organization - Knowledge - Motivation). To learn more, please follow this link to the series index:
