Making Motivation Happen: SelfWork #154
The SelfWork Podcast
Margaret Robinson Rutherford PhD
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2019
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Depression can steal your sense of vitality. Your "get up and go" or your motivation to reach goals that mean something to you can disappear. It's called anhedonia -- basically the lack of pleasure in (or motivation for) activities that used to mean something to you or to try on new challenges.
But you don't have to be depressed for this to happen. Plain old insecurity can morph into passivity. And the dream of attaining certain goals can seem so far out of reach that you don't know how to become who you want to be.
Enter the "as if" technique. Dr. Margaret will outline four basic steps that can guide you to find your motivation and make the changes possible that have seemed out of reach. And she gives both tangible and more intangible examples of how to make the progress you want to make.
The listener email for this week describes the pain that a mother or father can have if their child appears to have a volatile personality disorder. Can you have some kind of relationship with someone with BPD? It's one of the most asked questions in the emails Dr. Margaret receives as there is so much pain involved.
You can hear more about creating change and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression has arrived and you can order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
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| 0:00.0 | This is self-work and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. |
| 0:13.0 | At self-work we'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world |
| 0:19.0 | and what to do about them. |
| 0:20.0 | I'm Dr. Margaret and self-work is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few minutes today for your own self-work. |
| 0:30.0 | Hello and welcome to self-work. I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. I'm a clinical psychologist. I've |
| 0:34.7 | been practicing for over 25 years in Fayetteville, Arkansas and I'm so delighted you're |
| 0:40.0 | here. This has been a really busy week for me as my book Perfectly Hidden Depression was launched |
| 0:46.2 | last Friday and thanks to all of you who've written or contacted me about it. |
| 0:51.6 | I so appreciate it. Today we're going to be talking |
| 0:54.4 | about finding your motivation. Now obviously this is a problem when you're |
| 0:58.2 | depressed, but I've also seen this not only in people with depression but with people who just have gotten |
| 1:04.4 | into a basic bad habit of putting the cart before the horse but I'll explain more. |
| 1:11.1 | There's a specific therapeutic technique that I've called the as-if technique here. |
| 1:15.6 | That phrase can actually mean other things in psychology, but today we'll use it as a description |
| 1:20.5 | of a way to think about a change that you may want to make, but you're struggling to get |
| 1:24.8 | motivated. |
| 1:25.8 | There are four basic steps to consider and will go through each one. |
| 1:29.6 | Our listener email today describes a pain that a mother or father can have if their child |
| 1:34.9 | appears to have developed a volatile personality disorder. She asks |
| 1:39.9 | can I have some kind of relationship with a daughter with borderline personality disorder? |
| 1:45.6 | I do want to welcome all of you. Some of you may be quite interested and familiar and comfortable |
| 1:51.2 | with therapy or therapeutic techniques. |
... |
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