What do you do when you have no passion or drive?

I found myself having no passion or drive in life as a whole a few months back. It had been this way for a long time, and after some reflection I realized that it was because I was self-defeating. I love writing, I love going out and doing things- but I was doing none of that because before taking the first step my brain said "What's the point- you won't ever get it done." To get over it, I committed to writing and working out by making a no-excuse schedule. Unless there was an emergency or urgent matter, I would commit to this schedule and do what I wanted to do. It worked. I have over 20 documents relating to my novel now, and I have gained a good amount of weight from building muscle. The hardest part was getting up and taking the first step, and recognizing my inner problem. After recognizing it, facing that inner issue was something I had to force myself to do- and want to do it. There's no way to do that for someone else, but recognizing the issue itself can always help.

I could sit here and try to motivate you or tell you poetic things that give you hope but unfortunately I too am wondering the same thing. I lost my passion, my drive, more than three years ago and I go to bed every night hoping that when I wake up in the morning, my life will go back to the way it used to be. I think the best things for us to do is to keep searching for what drives us and what brings out our passion. We must try different things and stay positive. It's not easy but I hope it will be worth it someday. I wish you the best of luck. -LC

Feeling passion or drive is a great source of fulfilment for a human. Not feeling them can be a heavy weight and a source of stress. To start a nice "fire" of drive and passion, you may find out you have a spark, but no combustible, or some combustible but no spark. Or you have both but something or somebody is pouring a wet blanket over it everytime you start getting somewhere! Or the combustible is so powerful that it blows in your face at every attempt. All that is very discouraging and can make you feel you have no passion, no spark, and that something must be wrong with you, when it could be the opposite: there is something very right with you, and it is a passion so strong that it is patiently waiting for a connexion. I found that often, wanting to make the world a better or safer place is the big chunk of combustible waiting to be lit up. But it is such a big, universal and overwhelming chunk! There is so much to do! Where do you start? To find out if that is what is going to make you passionate and driven, you can start small: say, you find 3 or 4 places needing help: a homeless shelter, a community art club, a nature preservation, a sign language class whatever is around you, easily accessible. If you find yourself going home feeling stronger, more alert, more relaxed, from one or several of them, that is a good sign. If you find yourself searching online about some of the issues, that's also a good sign. And it may not be what you expect: you may, one night, help out in the kitchen of a shelter and realise you love cooking. You may speak with a fellow volunteer who speaks, say, swahili, and love the sound of it so much you start learning the language, get really good at it, end up find a job that makes you travel. What I would suggest is you keep in mind that you have the passion and drive, inside you, it hasn't taken shape on the outside yet. You wouldn't be asking the question otherwise. If it hasn't manifested yet, be patient, offer it multiple occasions to ignite. My real drive ignited at age 49. 2 years later, I'm applying to do a PhD about it, that's how driven I got. I had no idea I'd be all that fired up and detetmined. But what I had, the whole time, exhausting me, for years, was an acute reaction to injustice. It shaped up over the 2 years of volunteering in that field. And it validated every single year looking for a proper ignition point. I hope you find yours soon.  

Find motivation in other aspects of life - set yourself goals, recognise your achievements and understand your strengths and weaknesses, strive to make little steps and keep track of progress. Find interests in different areas of your life

Shut most electronics down for a day or a half. Grab many trash bags. Throw things away that you don't care about anymore and reorganize your surroundings. Focus on one creative, simple and easy project in the beginning if needed. And progress into more advanced tasks, including ones that do not bring an immediately perceived reward. Go at your own pace, but continue forward. Do not give up forever. Keep restarting.

I'm sorry you feel that way. One of the main symptoms of depression, is something called anhedonia, which means that you loose interest in the things that you used to love and care about, the hobbies that used to make you happy, your friends and family. Depression can also make you feel a tired so deep you feel it to your bones, like you don't have the energy to do anything, sometimes that even means getting out of bed. If this sounds familiar, I think i'd go to my doctor and maybe get checked to see if I had a depression, which can be a scary thing to admit. I think the important thing to remember personally if you feel that way is to be kind to yourself, practice self-care and give yourself time and space breathe.

You keep existing. You push yourself to accomplish even the smallest of things. Brush your teeth. Go for a walk. When that little voice of hesitation comes through, you push against it with whatever you have left in you. If you continue to do this, you will build up some drive and push yourself to do more and more positive things. Have patience with this process and patience with yourself.

When I have no passion or drive, I tend to get pen and paper to write. When I have so much going on in my head that I lose the ability to do anything, getting it out, onto paper, tends to help organize the mess that's in my mind. Writing also invokes passion as I become more and more animated the more I write!

I give myself time to wallow, but put a limit on it. One day allowed for staying in bed procrastinating and moping, but one day only! Then its time to motivate myself with upbeat music, a deep house clean and treating myself to some new stationary to make all my to-do lists. I also make mood boards to remind me of why I'm doing what I'm doing and that really helps drive me forward.

Passion/Drive/Motivation=Not Eternal, Not Always For eg one day you might wake up saying to yourself 'Enough is enough, I am going to exercise regularly and shed all this fat'. Your motivation enables you to do this for three to four days and boom, you are back at where you started. Because motivation or drive ended. Cultivate Self-Discipline. Motivation is overrated. Stick to the task, no matter how boring or annoying or taxing it may get, until you see it to its competition. And when its completed you will feel happy, that it was worth it and you will feel motivated again. So motivation is like a head start. You can't go all the way with it. Plan you work, divide it into little tasks and then do it little by little. Make a must-do list. And write on it, things that you must absolutely do. Don't write all the things you need to do, just write on it what you absolutely must do today before you go to sleep. Hold yourself accountable if you miss your schedule. And reward yourself if you meet your targets. But take note not to criticize yourself if you fail to achieve your goals. Treat it like a game. You play to win, you may fail a level or two while doing it. But you win the game, with tenacity. Good Luck!