My coaching clients have big dreams, and when they haven’t been able to reach a goal, whether it’s a major annual goal or a smaller daily goal, they’ll tell me it’s because of how lazy they are. They’ll go on to list all the ways in which they’re lazy, how frequently they’re lazy, and why they’ll continue to be lazy. They then use their laziness as an excuse for why they can’t do the very things in life they hired me to help them do.

The thing is, none of my clients are actually lazy. Just like everyone else, they just run into periods of low motivation. It’s unsustainable to be constantly moving toward our goals, to always feel passion for them, or to get up every single day and put in work towards something huge. We’re living creatures, and we require rest, relaxation, and recovery.

What most people don’t understand is that motivation can be dissected so that we can diagnose which part is broken and come up with a plan to fix it. In his book, The Art of Impossible, Steven Kotler identifies three main skill sets involved in motivation: drive, grit, and goals (2021). I use this framework when helping my clients get to the root of their “laziness” (aka low motivation).

When we don’t have a lot of drive, we might not feel passionate about much, or perhaps our passion has waned for a bit. Things that used to excite us no longer do. We also might not see the purpose in our big goals anymore and may start to........

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