How do you "regain" motivation?

For me, it's helpful to set small and achievable goals, to reflect on why I do what I do, to consider the bigger picture, and to reward myself for reaching my goals. What is with you?

In my case it come automatically. Sometime talking to my friend, discussion with friend.

To regain motivation, start by resetting your goals to ensure they are achievable and aligned with your aspirations. Setting overly ambitious goals can be demotivating, so focus on smaller, attainable objectives that lead to a sense of achievement. This strategy helps rebuild motivation through a series of successful accomplishments.

Oftentimes when I reached the deadline and wanted to finish my project in one night, but still had no motivation. I bought caffeinated drinks (w/ taurine like redbull) and had a few sips. This immediately kicked me in and made me a typing machine. So, I'd say caffeine might work, but if you are resistant or want to consume less, I'd say tea or coffee might also help. You could also try a few other alternatives stimulants like ginseng, yerba mate, and theanine. Apart from chemical stimulants, you can watch any motivational video, listen to uplifting music or read something that spark your nerves. But all these will be the temporary stimulations. In order to build up a habit of completing "tasks". I made a plan that effectively helped me finish faster. 1. plan a work duration (3-4 hours or less) 2. Split my (today's) task into multiple sub-tasks 3. Try to complete each task within 20 minutes. Even if I couldn't complete in 20 minutes, I'd still leave it be, mark it as "partially completed", and jump to another task. Then restart the partially completed tasks after completing the remaining ones. I did this in order to keep my motivation throughout the day. Sometimes, our tasks are too complex (esp. coding, designing, or research) that a simple 5-minute task would take 5 hours, thereby hindering our productivity and blocking other tasks, resulting in loss of motivation. I'll write another reply here about "regaining" motivation when we lose one completely.

Humans always like progress, and the main source of motivation is assuming what you would gain in the near/far future. Here's how to "regain" motivation: All the replies here are perfect including going out, going to events, imagining your better future, talking to friends, etc. I'd also want to talk about how I regained during the hard times. Usually, when this happens, me and my partner would go out on a long drive, discuss what's happening, and plan to make things better. However, this time, I lost all the interest in my coding journey due to burnout, entitled/thankless customers, too much competition, etc. So, I decided to open up my mind, and do things differently. I researched my industry, it's pros and cons, then all the other industries or areas I could jump to. (Eg. I thought about moving from services to products/SaaS). But changing the whole industry is obviously a stupid idea and wouldn't work for everyone. I'd rather recommend changing the way you work, try to find the solutions that could remove your current problems. For example, hire a sales guy (or marketing partner) if you aren't getting leads, use productivity tools if you're losing yourself at work, or try working in open places (if you can). Beside curricular activities, you can also choose to start a blog, Write a book, read fantasy fiction/non-fiction, or may be even start a non-profit program to help people.

I'd prioritize discipline over motivation on any given day. Sometimes you don't need to feel motivated to do what you must do (work out, study, work, etc) instead you need discipline and routine, and once you establish that, it will flow almost naturally.

for me most of the times the reason for losing motivation is burnout. usually during times like this reflecting, revisiting my goal and taking 2-3 days of full rest gives me the ability to fully reset my brain and continue working going forward.