I

t is a New Year with a promise. Something special about it this time around is that it also marks the beginning of a new decade!

As usual, people are excited. I tell you, there is no time on the face of the earth that spells hope like the advent of a new year. Psychologically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually, we are all excited about the prospects that the New Year holds.

A Personal Slump

However, not everyone is excited. There are some people, quite a number, who are experiencing some form of paralysis. They lack motivation and inspiration. There is this feeling in them that saps out the spiritual strength out of their lives.

Consequently, they do not feel the excitement of the New Year. They could be suffering a personal slump. I can tell you that nothing steals people’s dreams, kills people’s momentum and causes others to give up like a paralysis that comes from a slump.

Probably you know someone who is not all that excited about the New Year. Probably you are one of them. In this article, I identify the five main causes of a personal slump that has taken the excitement out of your life.

Know Thy Enemy

It is important that you know what you are dealing with because your life purpose is at stake. If you allow this to fester a little longer, the repercussions could be of a personal detriment of great proportions. In other words, you and I need to arrest the situation as fast as possible. We do this by examining the causes of our unfortunate slump.

One thing that I have to say is that we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that this slump and paralysis can happen even to the best of us. Every visionary has had such moments. We are all human and when such a thing happens to us, it can be uncomfortable, destabilizing and also demotivating.

The following are the causes.

Causes of Despair

1. Disappointment:

   One of the greatest forces of progress in life is hope. In fact, I would challenge you to have tremendous hope at the beginning of the new decade. Have hope that your life purpose will shine greater like never before in this decade. Have hope that you will be the best version of yourself in the new decade.

However, at times we have hope in something specific and at times, we order our lives around that expectation. This means that for the most part, we have not considered another outcome if at all that hope will not be fruitful.

Robber of Motivation

When that happens, we get so disappointed and disillusioned. The spirit that we had is taken away from us. We cannot fathom the fact that the object of our expectation is long gone, never to be recovered.
Nothing robs us of motivation and inspiration as a disappointment does. It is one of the biggest contributors to our personal paralysis. This is one main reason why some people are not so excited about the new decade. Are you one of them?

2. Fatigue:

   This affects different faculties. Your emotions, your intellect and your body. Fatigue is always a result of different things. Perhaps there is so much to do and so little time. Perhaps you have bitten off more than you can chew. Perhaps you have not rested enough. In whatever case, fatigue is a killer of momentum and it can easily cause you to enter a slump.
   It is important to remember at such instances that you are more important in the equation than the projects that you are seeking to finish. Therefore, take care of yourself first, and do it militantly.

3. Despair

   A mental state is of key importance in success. In fact, if you wanted to be successful, you cannot be ignorant about your mental state. You cannot be careless about it either. Despair is a feeling. A feeling of hopelessness with what the future holds.

   For the most part, this despair comes after experiencing some kind of reality that spells hopelessness to your dreams and desires. For example, you have a project that has to be carried out but you are short on resources on every front.

Everywhere you look, you do not see a respite. This can cause you to despair.
Perhaps the deepest feeling of despair is when you have absolutely nothing to look forward to, including the project itself. In other words, there is nothing going on in your life seemingly, and yet you have very many needs to meet.

Quite a number of people are despairing over the New Year. They have no clue how the year is going to turn out. As a matter of fact, they have started the year demotivated and in a slump of personal paralysis. There is hope. I bet you that this might not be the first time this is happening to you. If you ever kept a journal, you can fish out a moment years or even months ago that you never thought you would go through, but you still did.

4. Laziness

   Obviously, a personal slump will be orchestrated by laziness. I can tell you this for free. In the New Year, one has to be quick to be on their feet. Forget the festivities and prepare your body and mind for action. Get up, get active. If you are not careful, laziness has a way of creeping in. It will do so in the form of “Holidays mood”, and keep you down. Let not the New Year find you lazy. Seize the moment and be on the move!

5. Distractions

   Perhaps the greatest impediment to our success in this decade will be distractions. There are people who already know what they ought to focus on in the decade. The problem is that they have not yet started out because of distractions.

We have millions of distractions daily. If we shall overcome any personal slump or paralysis in the New Year, it is important that we take care of any distractions in our lives urgently.

In the next episode, we shall talk about how to cure a personal slump in one great move. Stay connected.