Thread: Retaining motivation

Firstly I'd like to refer you to this thread in case you haven't spotted it already, where this topic was brought up a little while ago. Maybe something said in there may be of help.

Secondly, it's totally fine to lose interest at times too. Practising most skills ends up being very much like practising creativity in general; sometimes the conscious mind does need breaks from the subjects we're working on/with. At times it may seem difficult to see the immediate benefit of not doing the thing you want to be doing, but overdoing something is just as likely to make you find things that only serve to irritate or demotivate.

So, that said, I think you should keep your current efforts going while considering that if you do lose motivation, you will indeed gain it back at some point as you suggest. But you may even have a lucid dream while you're not trying as hard, this seems to happen to some people. I start to get really interesting ideas for my drawings and art in general when I'm not actively thinking about the activity. Sometimes there is no "aha" moment, of course.

And besides, you don't need the motivation to practise techniques etc in order to remain interested in the subject. You can still read, discuss, etc. even if you are not actively trying to focus on the practical side of things. I often read/watch content about how to do certain things in art or subjects relating to creativity even if for any reason I'm not being as active on the physical/practical side.

Edit: Oh and on this point, I had recently been thinking myself that it's a shame that I do not have lucid dreams all that often. But when I was thinking this, I also remembered these have been the early years for me in terms of actively pursuing lucidity; there are still thousands more nights to come, filled with interesting dreams, even if they are not lucid and even if I don't remember all of them, I'll remember more than people who aren't trying to keep track of their dream-life at all!

Originally Posted by DarkestDarkness

Firstly I'd like to refer you to this thread in case you haven't spotted it already, where this topic was brought up a little while ago. Maybe something said in there may be of help.

Secondly, it's totally fine to lose interest at times too. Practising most skills ends up being very much like practising creativity in general; sometimes the conscious mind does need breaks from the subjects we're working on/with. At times it may seem difficult to see the immediate benefit of not doing the thing you want to be doing, but overdoing something is just as likely to make you find things that only serve to irritate or demotivate.

So, that said, I think you should keep your current efforts going while considering that if you do lose motivation, you will indeed gain it back at some point as you suggest. But you may even have a lucid dream while you're not trying as hard, this seems to happen to some people. I start to get really interesting ideas for my drawings and art in general when I'm not actively thinking about the activity. Sometimes there is no "aha" moment, of course.

And besides, you don't need the motivation to practise techniques etc in order to remain interested in the subject. You can still read, discuss, etc. even if you are not actively trying to focus on the practical side of things. I often read/watch content about how to do certain things in art or subjects relating to creativity even if for any reason I'm not being as active on the physical/practical side.

Edit: Oh and on this point, I had recently been thinking myself that it's a shame that I do not have lucid dreams all that often. But when I was thinking this, I also remembered these have been the early years for me in terms of actively pursuing lucidity; there are still thousands more nights to come, filled with interesting dreams, even if they are not lucid and even if I don't remember all of them, I'll remember more than people who aren't trying to keep track of their dream-life at all!

Thank you for your reply. I'll try not to think about failing, then. If I do, it won't be so bad, and if I don't then the intention of not failing will probably have brought lucid dreams earlier than if I wouldn't have, I guess. Not sure if what I said made sense

Never rely only on motivation. Every emotion is short-lived, always. Understand this rush of excitement will inevitably run its course. There will be bad days, dreadful days even, but these are when our practice matters most. Self-discipline will get you far, not motivation. Be wary that the road to any skill could be long; by how much we can't really know. And we must be patient. The will of putting yourself out there and practice, despite how you feel, is important.

Two weeks ago, I thought I had lucidity figured out. Turns out I was wrong. And yes, it sucks, but if I wait for motivation to continue, I might be in for a long wait. I know last time it took three years. By that time, I had lost everything I had built before. Had I continued then, perhaps today I would've reaped the fruits of three years worth of practice, yet here we are.

1) Take a break. It won't hurt your practice, in fact, sometimes it helps. Jump back in when you feel ready. Once you feel refreshed, just do what feels fun at first.

2) Find a way to record/log your efforts. This can be self-motivating, because you can see your progress. Keep journals.

3) Try a new angle. Try a new induction method. Find something exciting relating to LDing (a new book, maybe a youtube channel, make artwork, etc.) Attempt a new practice such as ADA, meditation, reality checking, or memory building.

4) Understand that it takes a LONG time for many people to get to a point of frequent lucid dreams. This is normal, you are not failing. You are building awareness.

5) Once you have another lucid dream, and you will, you will feel very motivated.


It's like a snowball effect. HARD to get going, but once you do, you can get to a point where you're lucid, at least once, almost every night. This is achievable.

Originally Posted by Silence11

Be wary that the road to any skill could be long; by how much we can't really know. And we must be patient. The will of putting yourself out there and practice, despite how you feel, is important.
(...)
Had I continued then, perhaps today I would've reaped the fruits of three years worth of practice, yet here we are.

Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

4) Understand that it takes a LONG time for many people to get to a point of frequent lucid dreams. This is normal, you are not failing. You are building awareness.

These. ^^^

I forgot to touch on this point but definitely keep the above in mind.

People progress at learning skills at very different rates from each other for any number of reasons and it's also a good idea to not measure your own progress by the success or failure of other people's progress.

Of course you should consider what others did well and what they did poorly, but don't use their examples/work/etc. as "gold standards". This definitely applies to all learned skills, the journey to becoming "good" at anything involves going through a lot of trial-and-error even when you know all the theory and have seen all the mistakes other people made.

Originally Posted by Draeger

Hey, I am slowly losing motivation and am slowly only continuing since I know I will automatically regain motivation at some point and would be happy to have lucidity then. It sort of satisfies me currently to be making progress at all, but I don't know if it's going to stay like that. I hope I will be able to keep up the mentality of it being great for me in the future if I do it now, but I don't know if I can keep it up. What do I do?

My motivation has fluctuated a TON over the past decade that I’ve been into LD’ing. Even after I’d have the most mind-blowing lucid dream it was difficult to keep up the routine. I would just say that it’s okay to focus on other things every now and again. Dreaming will always be here for you when you feel like getting back into it

Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

1) 5) Once you have another lucid dream, and you will, you will feel very motivated.

That sure is very true. Just had another, and now I want more. Motivation is back

Originally Posted by Draeger

That sure is very true. Just had another, and now I want more. Motivation is back

Awesome, congratulations! Now, time to focus on building your lucid stability.

Originally Posted by Draeger

That sure is very true. Just had another, and now I want more. Motivation is back

Congrats!! Keep up the great work! You got this!