Common Motivation Mistakes: What Psychology Says About Staying Motivated

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When people try to increase their motivation, they often make a series of fundamental mistakes that are entirely avoidable. The most common motivation mistakes include setting unrealistic goals, lacking daily discipline, procrastinating, framing effort as pain rather than progress, and over-planning instead of taking action. Understanding these patterns is the first step toward building motivation that actually lasts.

If you are pursuing a number of goals, you are going to face obstacles that can overwhelm you. It can be a daunting prospect when you are pursuing long-term goals, as achieving them just seems so far away. This can change your motivational state dramatically, and you need to do the right things to get it back on course. At Bayridge Counselling Centres, our therapists regularly work with clients across Ontario who are stuck in these patterns—and the strategies below reflect what we see help most.

Signs You’re Making Motivation Mistakes

Before diving into the specific mistakes, it helps to recognize the warning signs. You may be undermining your own motivation if you:

• Set goals that feel overwhelming within days of starting
• Rely on bursts of inspiration rather than consistent routines
• Frequently delay tasks despite knowing they matter
• Spend more time refining plans than executing them
• Feel guilty about progress instead of energized by it

1. Goals Are Unrealistic

If your goals are unrealistic, it is going to be very difficult to achieve them. This will really test your motivation. It is much better to have more realistic goals that you feel confident you can achieve. Your motivation will stay higher.

So don’t try and go for near-impossible goals. If you are in your fifties and overweight, it isn’t realistic that you will be the next great world sports star, is it? It is fine to go for financial goals, but don’t make the time frame too short. When you set unrealistic goals, it will really test your motivation—and the likelihood is that it will fail.

2. No Discipline

Making changes to your motivation is going to take discipline. But a lot of people lack this and expect miracles. Increasing your motivation is something you need to work at consistently. You cannot make a change and expect this to last forever.

So you need to improve your discipline if you want to make lasting changes to increase your motivation. Make a commitment each day to work on your motivation and find different ways to do this. In our work with clients at Bayridge, we often see that motivation follows action—not the other way around.

3. Stop Procrastinating

Are you a procrastinator? Do you look at your task list and think about other things that you would sooner be doing? Do social media and other things that you fall back on when you just can’t be bothered easily distract you?

The more that you procrastinate, the more you will damage your motivation. Procrastination is a total success killer. So rather than thinking “I will do this later,” change your thinking to “I want to get this done right now.” There are many ways that you can overcome procrastination. Admit that you have the problem and then take steps to overcome it.

4. Change Long-Term Pain into Short-Term Pleasure

When you are trying to achieve something worthwhile, you are going to experience some pain. The way that you approach this will mean the difference between being totally unmotivated or highly motivated to push forward.

Be sure to link pleasure to completing all of your tasks. If you feel overwhelmed about completing a large task, then break it down into smaller tasks that you can complete easily. So change your thinking to pleasure rather than pain.

5. Too Much Planning

To achieve any goal, you need to have a good plan. But a lot of people go overboard with too much planning. Creating a realistic plan will give your motivation a boost, but spending too much time refining a plan can have the opposite effect.

So create a good plan and then start working on it. You can make adjustments to it as you go along. Taking action will be far more beneficial for your motivation than creating a perfect plan.

How to Get Back on Track

If you recognize yourself in any of the mistakes above, start small. Pick one goal, make it realistic, and commit to one action today. Motivation builds through momentum—not through waiting until you feel ready. If you have been struggling with motivation for a while, speaking with a registered therapist can help you understand what’s underneath the pattern. Many clients find that motivation issues are connected to underlying stress, perfectionism, or burnout.