Ep. 99: Why motivation isn’t always the answer (and what you’re actually craving instead)
[7 MIN LISTEN]
For so many women, motivation has become the measuring stick. If you feel motivated, you move. If you don’t, you wait. And when motivation doesn’t arrive, the waiting quickly turns into self-judgment.
I see this pattern everywhere, and I’ve lived it myself.
We tell ourselves that once we feel inspired enough, confident enough, ready enough, we’ll finally begin. But what if motivation isn’t the missing piece? What if the waiting is actually pointing to something deeper?
In this episode of The Life with Liz Podcast, I explore the truth beneath motivation and why so many women feel stuck even though they’re trying so hard to move forward.
What I’ve learned, both personally and professionally, is that waiting is rarely about laziness or lack of motivation or discipline. It’s communication. Your system is asking for something, and it’s worth listening.
Sometimes what you’re craving is rest after a long season of holding everything together. Sometimes it’s reassurance that you won’t repeat old patterns or make the same mistakes again. Sometimes it’s permission to change direction without having to justify it to anyone else.
Motivation tends to show up naturally when you feel safe, supported, and honest with yourself. It doesn’t respond well to pressure. It doesn’t thrive under self-criticism. When we try to force it, we often end up more disconnected than before.
I’ve noticed that clarity arrives not through action, but through attention. When you slow down enough to ask, “What am I actually craving right now?” the answer usually isn’t dramatic. It’s simple. It’s human. And it often leads you exactly where you need to go.
This episode is an invitation to stop fixing yourself into motion and start responding to yourself with curiosity instead. Growth doesn’t require urgency. It requires presence.
If you’re in a season of waiting or feeling stuck in life, let this be your reminder that nothing is wrong with you. You’re not behind. You may simply be listening more closely than you ever have before.
If you want a grounded place to reconnect with yourself and move forward without pressure, my free training Step Into Your Power is there for you to watch whenever you feel called. It’s designed to help you break cycles gently and return to yourself with clarity. No big motivation necessary.
Episode transcript:
This is an auto-generated, unedited episode transcript. Please excuse any tyops.
Welcome to The Life with Liz Podcast, the place to be if you wanna go from invisible to vibrant in your life, and embrace the power you didn't know you had inside of you. I'm your host, Liz Fleming, business owner, mom, military spouse, entrepreneur, founder, CEO, and life coach, who is passionate about helping ambitious women like you step into their power and their purpose on purpose so they can experience as much joy, success, satisfaction, and abundance as humanly possible.
Now without further ado, let's dive right into this episode.
Liz Fleming: Welcome back to the Life With Liz podcast! Today's conversation is for the part of you that feels like it keeps telling yourself, I'll start when I feel motivated, while kind of quietly wondering why that feeling never seems to arrive.
2 00:00:29.540 --> 00:00:40.789 Liz Fleming: I want to disrupt the idea that motivation is something you're missing, because in my experience, what most women are craving
3 00:00:41.170 --> 00:00:42.999 Liz Fleming: Isn't motivation at all.
4 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:44.550 Liz Fleming: It's safety.
5 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:45.929 Liz Fleming: It's clarity.
6 00:00:46.050 --> 00:00:51.850 Liz Fleming: It's permission to move forward, And make progress without pressure.
7 00:00:53.090 --> 00:01:03.489 Liz Fleming: This episode is about naming what's really underneath the weighting, and learning how to respond to it with honesty instead of self-judgment.
8 00:01:03.620 --> 00:01:14.389 Liz Fleming: I felt so called to record this episode, you know, what you're actually craving, and why you keep waiting for that quote-unquote motivation. Felt really called for that, because I've been there.
9 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:29.160 Liz Fleming: motivation has been framed as the spark that gets everything moving, right? It's like the zing that you're always waiting for. But that framing leaves so many people, especially women, feeling stuck, because
10 00:01:29.410 --> 00:01:38.910 Liz Fleming: When motivation doesn't show up, we assume something is wrong, and most often times, we're assuming that something is wrong with us, and that is simply not the case.
13 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:04.689 Liz Fleming: What I've seen in my own life, and in my work with many women over the years, is that waiting often masks a deeper need.
14 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:22.220 Liz Fleming: Sometimes you're craving rest after a season of overextension. Sometimes you're craving reassurance that you won't fail again. Sometimes you're craving alignment, not action. That's why I cannot stand this, you know, new year, new me type of deal, right? It's like, no.
15 00:02:22.850 --> 00:02:30.839 Liz Fleming: I'm not new. I'm allowed to shed, I'm allowed to, like, not be motivated all the time, and not feel empowered all the time. I need…
16 00:02:31.150 --> 00:02:36.700 Liz Fleming: to have those moments of stillness, those periods of rest. They're,
17 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:44.879 Liz Fleming: were definite seasons in my life where I thought I needed discipline to get out of those feelings, when what I actually needed was gentleness.
18 00:02:45.050 --> 00:02:56.230 Liz Fleming: I didn't need to push harder. I didn't need to listen more closely to what everyone else was saying and what every ad was saying. I needed to listen more closely to myself.
19 00:02:57.100 --> 00:02:59.669 Liz Fleming: When you slow down enough to ask.
20 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:03.879 Liz Fleming: What am I actually craving right now?
21 00:03:04.350 --> 00:03:10.720 Liz Fleming: Like, what am I actually feeling so called to do? What is my intuition calling me to do?
22 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:23.000 Liz Fleming: The answer is rarely dramatic. It's usually simple. It's usually honest, and it almost always points you toward something related to self-trust and self-love.
23 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:39.789 Liz Fleming: Whether it's those periods of rest, or maybe you are super excited. Maybe that's the word you're looking for. Maybe you're excited to, you know, go out and take a walk, or do that meditation you've been wanting to try, or that yoga class, or that journaling session.
24 00:03:40.100 --> 00:03:47.829 Liz Fleming: But maybe you're just feeling… ready to… kind of go within. And…
25 00:03:47.980 --> 00:03:53.509 Liz Fleming: get quiet and get honest with yourself, and that feels really good. This is why…
26 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:58.590 Liz Fleming: Growth doesn't begin with forcing yourself forward.
27 00:03:58.910 --> 00:04:02.190 Liz Fleming: It begins with responding to yourself differently.
28 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:17.949 Liz Fleming: Motivation becomes available when your nervous system feels supported, not when it's being dragged along, and not when it's being pressured, whether it's external pressure or internal pressure. So I really want you
29 00:04:18.260 --> 00:04:33.070 Liz Fleming: to take that to heart in this episode, and replay this as many times as you need. It's… it's not a long one, but it's a good one. It's a great reminder, and as you all know, my listeners who have been listening for years know that
30 00:04:33.070 --> 00:04:38.520 Liz Fleming: I typically record podcast episodes to coach myself through something, or when I've recently
31 00:04:38.520 --> 00:04:48.010 Liz Fleming: you know, had that experience and coached myself through it. This whole podcast is from experience, and it is my absolute passion
32 00:04:48.010 --> 00:04:53.520 Liz Fleming: to share what I've learned from it. It's not the end-all, be-all, but…
33 00:04:53.880 --> 00:05:12.760 Liz Fleming: it is opening up eyes to different ways of seeing yourself and loving yourself, and I feel so called for that, intuitively, for myself, to share this with the world, share my experience with the world, and this is one of the ways I'm doing it, and this episode in particular.
34 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:25.129 Liz Fleming: it really struck a chord with me, because how many times of your life have you just felt that pressure to get motivated to do something? It's like, oh, I don't have the motivation, I can't do it, I can't do it.
35 00:05:25.170 --> 00:05:28.190 Liz Fleming: And it's not that you can't do it.
36 00:05:28.210 --> 00:05:38.579 Liz Fleming: It's that you're not listening to your body. You're not listening to what it's truly saying and what it's truly needing, and oftentimes when you lack that motivation, just like I was saying.
37 00:05:38.580 --> 00:05:51.339 Liz Fleming: Your body is longing for nurturing, for gentleness. Not for you to push harder, not for you to, like, trick yourself into going to the gym to exercise, because you feel like that's where you should be, or what you should be doing.
38 00:05:51.970 --> 00:06:02.730 Liz Fleming: Your success and your happiness in life is all about your willingness to go within and to listen to the calling of your soul, to your intuition.
39 00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:06.090 Liz Fleming: That is where the magic happens.
40 00:06:06.750 --> 00:06:18.990 Liz Fleming: So if you've been waiting for motivation to arrive before you move, before you do the thing, let this be your reminder that you're allowed to begin with honesty.
41 00:06:19.140 --> 00:06:20.220 Liz Fleming: Instead.
42 00:06:20.960 --> 00:06:35.849 Liz Fleming: And if you want support reconnecting with yourself without pressure, my free training, Step Into Your Power, is linked in the show notes. It's a grounded place to start when you're tired of fixing yourself into action, and it really opens to your eyes to just…
43 00:06:36.510 --> 00:06:40.359 Liz Fleming: Listening. Listening deeply and allowing yourself to go with it.
Did that go by too fast? No worries. You can always find me over at elisabethfleming.com for more information about my programs, events, and how you can take your learning further with me. If you loved this episode, leave a review. It helps more than you know.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll catch you next time.
Connect with Liz:
Watch Liz's FREE Workshop, Step Into Your Power:
Discover the 3 hidden patterns draining your energy and learn how to start feeling like yourself again. Watch now at elisabethfleming.com/free-workshop
Read Liz's Book:
Discover Liz’s bestselling book, Powerhouse: 3 Steps to Thrive as the Incredible Woman You Already Are — A Framework for Self-Love and Expansion: elisabethfleming.com/book
Resources:
Website: elisabethfleming.com/welcome
Instagram: @mslizfleming
Podcast: The Life with Liz Podcast
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