Being Unmotivated & Losing Interest | The Teen Safe Zone

Hi everyone! Welcome or welcome back to The Teen Safe Zone, where it's safe for teens to be themselves! After taking a little unexpected break, I'm finally back... and better than ever! While on my break, I deeply thought about a few things that I was going through that I wanted to share with you all. These things include: feeling unmotivated, being at an all-time high, and then again at an all-time low.

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Being Unmotivated:

Has anyone ever woken up in a very uplifting mindset, seeing past all of the bad things going around and just seeing life as full of open opportunities? Then, the next day, you're back in the "rabbit hole," as I like to call it. You then see everything in a negative mindset, expecting the worst in everything and underestimating your ability to get out of the condition or situation you may be in. This is the reason I took a break, and I want to share my experiences with you all.

So a few weeks ago, I was thinking about my blog and upcoming post ideas, as I typically do. One day of the week, I felt very motivated to write a post; I had so many ideas stored in my mind, and I just couldn't wait to get done with my schoolwork so I could start working on my blog. Then, when I actually got on my blog website, I typed a few words and randomly got discouraged. I couldn't think of the words to say, although I had everything stored in my mind just a few hours before. So I postponed writing the post for a few days later.

A few days later rolled by, and I felt even more unmotivated than before, and I couldn't understand why. I kept postponing posts unexpectedly because I didn't know the "right" way to word my blog. My biggest mistake along the way was letting outside situations determine my motivation, which many of us probably do without noticing. Ask yourself, "What is the root that is causing me to be so unmotivated?" Are you letting current life situations determine your happiness and, therefore, do you feel that since you are "stuck" in life, you'll always be "stuck?" Are the events going on in the world (such as the pandemic, wars, etc.) making you panic and bringing your mood down? For some of us, it might be a little bit of both. What I realized while on my break is that you can't let life today determine your life tomorrow. I know I always say that on my blog, but this time I actually took the time to think about it and let it go through my head.

We have no control over most life events, so don't let that get the best of you. But, you do have control over how you handle those life events. You can either give up or give it all you've got. Something that I am learning in life is that life is all about reactions. Yes, things may get difficult, but it's about how you react to them. You can give up and feel unmotivated, or you can show life that it won't get the best of you. You can still live happily despite all of the things you are going through. Don't let today determine your future; that's what I was doing. I was letting everything else in life interfere with my dreams of being a successful teen blogger (and other dreams in the future that I don't have planned yet). I was letting my frustration with the current events in the world determine the future. I kept overthinking negatively about how the world would be 10 years from now according to how events are playing out now. I realized this was why I kept getting unmotivated.

Another thing I would like to mention is the feeling of not knowing the "next steps" to take in life. As a teenager myself, I never understood that feeling more than I do now. I am currently experiencing the "growing up" phrase where you realize that time waits for no one. As a kid, we always thought that "we'll always have time to get it right and think about life." However, when you get older and understand life more, you realize it's not that way at all. Life is just a ticking time clock; there's no pause, fast-forward, or rewind. Have you ever just taken the time to think about that? Just thinking about the future at times is sometimes stressful. As a high school freshman, I think to myself that although college is about 3 1/2 years away, this time will go by so fast. Then, I start overthinking about all of the little details that might come my way. "How will I pay for college tuition?" "Where will I go to college?" "Will I ever get accepted into my dream college?" "What am I even going to take up as a major?"

All of the little things I don't even have planned, so it makes me feel "behind". Shouldn't I already have thought these things through? But then recently, while reading a comment section on YouTube, I realized that I was not the only one going through this. So many other teens and even adults aren't sure what their next steps are in life. For the time being, I am realizing that you don't always have to have everything planned out. Just enjoy your life as it is right now, because you don't need to add any additional stress to yourself that isn't necessary. I once read someone's comment that said, "Everything that you're stressing about right now probably won't even matter a few weeks, months, or years from now."

So I'm writing this post for everyone reading it to stay motivated. Yes, things will get difficult, but that's life. However, realize that life is all about reactions. Life will make you feel discouraged and unmotivated at times, but life events will always do that. So it's either now or never to give life all you've got. Don't let today determine tomorrow. Don't let stress take over your happiness. Don't stress if you don't have everything in your life planned out for the time being. Don't give up. - Lexi