Thread: My motivation really sucks lately

Hi Laurelindo,

do you have DILDs or WILDs? I suspect DILDs, and they are very cool if can get them. But how about trying for a WILD?

WILDs do come with all kinds of exciting things, like visual or acceleration HH, and I'm often happy with them, even if I don't achive a WILD. I know these are not the goal, but they can get your motivation back, since it's something new.

If this is something you would be interested in, let us know, and we will take it from there.

Other than that, I would suggest checking out the Task of the Month thread for some cool ideas, and re-reading your own or someone elses DJ for some motivation.

What about reading your past dream journals? That always motivates me. Also, have you found any side benefits from practicing lucid dreaming? That can be a source of motivation for many of us...seeing the different ways we are benefitting while taking a long term view of the enjoyable and learning-filled journey.

You can also find camaraderie here by participating in the forums or by tracking your progress in a DVA workbook.

Find a link between your waking life and lucid dreams, like being creative or sport trainning ?
Use lucid dreaming as a tool for creativity, like finding ideas for writting novels ?

Very important topic. Personnally, my motivation follows the curve of my LD rate. When I am in a dry spell, my motivation drops. Obviously, it doesn't help my LD rate. When it happens, I try to convince myself that I am only exercising my memory (*). All these things (recalling dreams, remembering to RC, remembering my thoughts of the last 15 minutes, ...) are beneficial for my memory, and that is a good thing in itself.

(*) Two of my close family members were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease over the last three years. I don't know if exercising my memory can actually have a protective effect against Alzheimer's disease, but I want to put all the odds on my side. Regardless of lucid dreaming, I am motivated to work on preserving my cognitive functions, and I use that as a tool to compensate the loss of LD motivation when the results are too low.

I'm going through the same thing now. I want to have LD's but can't seem to get any effort in. WILD seems a nice thing to try but i've never had any good luck with it. only giving up after an hour of frustrations

My motivation also sucks a lot, but I found something that works for me: When Im motivated, I practice, when Im disinterested, I practice, when Im annoyed by RC's and don't want to do it, I still practice. I basically force it but what keeps me going is also remembering what I said in my last lucid dream a time ago, "Its worth it". Im sure I will be a lot more motivated when I begin to have them frequently and won't have to force it anymore.

Originally Posted by Laurelindo

I would like some of your help in order to get my motivation back.
I haven't felt any real interest in practicing lucid dreaming for 4-5 months now, and I am starting to feel a little frustrated by this.
I have been focused on the topic of lucid dreaming for almost 4 years now, and I have had several dozens of lucid dreams since then (although I am rarely super-motivated, so my average is 1-2 lucid dreams per month, but I can often get 5-6 in a month if I actually practice), so I am obviously serious about this and I am sure I will have an interest in lucid dreaming for the rest of my life (I really can't see any reason to lose interest in it).
But for some reason I seem to have huge problem keeping that honest feeling of motivation.
I can have those moments when I get a very brief taste of excitement when I start thinking of all the cool stuff I could do in lucid dreams, but those feelings only last for a few minutes or even seconds.
And I cannot really say that this lack of motivation is because I study a lot right now, because I used to be able to practice lucid dreaming while working or having summer jobs, and that was not a problem.
And if I have time to sleep, then I should have time to practice lucid dreaming - but for some reason I just cannot bother doing it.
I sometimes manage to rekindle my interest for a little while by watching movies like The Matrix and similar movies with some kind of "lucid dream content", but those effects don't last for that long either.

What do you usually do when you have a very long lack of motivation like this?

It's hard to start and for it to become a daily routine. If you need motivation just think about what you can gain from it. What you can learn talking to inner thoughts. If that is a goal for you, that should be all the motivation you need.

I have just been in a similar situation. 4 years lucid dreaming, over 200 LDs and then last 2 months or so life got busy and dreams and LDs dropped off to nil, and little motivation or time to practice. Last night i awoke at 5 and thought "I wonder if I can still LD?" and sort of thought I wanted to. Well let me tell you..I had 20-30 minute LD. It was SO real! This from a guy whose longest to date was maybe 5 mins and most are 30 secs to maybe 1-2 minutes. I was in so long I wondered if I would just be able to remain there. Dream seemed longer at first but things happen so quickly in dreams I am guessing 20+ mins. Well, it was so awesome I feel the dry spell was a good thing. Don't stress it. I wasn't concerned when I hit it...life itself has been good so no big need for LDs. But this may kick start my interest. For me I just had to WANT one.

Hi again everyone, and thanks for all the replies.

I had a bunch of ordinary dreams last night (I had slept for only 4 hours the night before so I compensated by sleeping about 11-12 hours this time, and I feel excellent now), and they were all very vivid and pleasant, and that was certainly a great motivation boost, and I actually even think I was close to becoming lucid in one of them, since I told a dream character something about everything possibly being a dream, "just to test his reactions" and what he thought about that statement.
I was kind of hovering between being awake and asleep at that point, but I think I actually told him about that during the actual dream, and not just played with the thought while I was awake.

In any case, I think I have got my motivation back now (my feeling of excitement is certainly back again), and I am going to start focusing on dream recall until next Sunday or so, without demanding anything else from myself until then.
I think it's a good idea to start with steps that feel easy enough, and dream recall is pretty easy to build up if one sticks to it, and I might even be lucky and get a couple free lucid dreams simply from the journaling alone;
it has happened before.

Originally Posted by Laurelindo

Hi again everyone, and thanks for all the replies.

I had a bunch of ordinary dreams last night (I had slept for only 4 hours the night before so I compensated by sleeping about 11-12 hours this time, and I feel excellent now), and they were all very vivid and pleasant, and that was certainly a great motivation boost, and I actually even think I was close to becoming lucid in one of them, since I told a dream character something about everything possibly being a dream, "just to test his reactions" and what he thought about that statement.
I was kind of hovering between being awake and asleep at that point, but I think I actually told him about that during the actual dream, and not just played with the thought while I was awake.

In any case, I think I have got my motivation back now (my feeling of excitement is certainly back again), and I am going to start focusing on dream recall until next Sunday or so, without demanding anything else from myself until then.
I think it's a good idea to start with steps that feel easy enough, and dream recall is pretty easy to build up if one sticks to it, and I might even be lucky and get a couple free lucid dreams simply from the journaling alone;
it has happened before.

Good to know you are motivated again, I too once lost motivation because of the lack of LD. But it was mostly my fault for not creating a dream journal and not believing in myself that I could actually get to LD ( and man, mind barriers actually exist ). The thing is to never give up and don't feel like you are failing, everything takes a different time to get used to or so I think.

Oh motivation my nemesis!
I've been away from DV for a while for exactly the same reason my motivation keeps vanishing. It can get kinda frustrating hearing others having loads when you're struggling to not just black out every night. Luckily I've been Lding for many years now so I've kind of got used to motivation coming in waves. TBH I think it's like any other hobby or interest sometimes you just have to push your way through moments of doubt and lack of motivation