Like most people, we often feel that we need motivation to start—a spark of inspiration to be creative or tackle a new task. But what if our lack of motivation comes from something deeper? What if our body is actually telling us the true nature of why we lack the drive?
When we visualise something that demotivates us, we can analyse our body and feelings in that moment. What you may notice is that visualising something you fear creates very similar sensations. Could it be that what we call “demotivation” is actually the body triggering a fear response?
The body’s reaction to fear is designed to prime us for immediate action, not for considered response. But when the fear comes from an imagined threat, the nervous system still sounds the alarm. Somewhere inside, we move away from the demotivation of the task—not because of the task itself, but because of what the task represents.
Take an example: the person who doesn’t do their taxes. On the surface, it’s boring and mundane, with little pleasure in it. Yet, if doing their taxes meant saving themselves a large sum of money, they might suddenly feel motivated. The value of the reward changes the feeling. But what counts as “worth it” depends on perspective: $1000 may be a lot to one person and nothing to another. It’s about how the person perceives their reality.
All perception whether good or bad is in relation to our past memories. Our state of self in any given moment is either good or bad in context of where we were before, but neither good nor bad without it. It just is. While one moment in the current time may become good or bad in relation to how it effect the future.
Or think about those who leave tasks until the last minute. They often say they work best under pressure, but the truth is that they’ve created pressure through avoidance. This pattern may feel productive, but in reality, it’s a cycle of stress and anxiety.
Similarly, the person who works only to avoid going broke may find that once they reach financial safety, their energy and productivity fade—until the cycle starts again.
These examples show that demotivation is more than simple avoidance. It reflects a pessimistic view of reality. People run from fear, avoiding tasks that might actually protect them from the pain they fear in the first place. By delaying, they miss the benefits of early action.
Fear also narrows our thinking. When the nervous system is on high alert, our attention shrinks to focus only on the perceived threat. As the saying goes: “When you are looking at the tiger, you’re not focused on the forest around you.”
So perhaps what demotivates us is not laziness at all—it is that we only see the threats, not the opportunities. If we begin to recognise demotivation as a fear response, we can reframe it. We can learn to look beyond the threat, acknowledge it, and then intentionally shift our focus toward optimism and possibility.
This shift takes practice. By cultivating daily gratitude and training our minds to notice positives, we can gradually reprogram our nervous system to adopt a new perspective. From that perspective comes a new perception—and with it, renewed motivation.