And hello to you and welcome to the Richard Nichols podcast, the Personal Development

podcast series that's here to help inspire, educate and motivate you to be the best you can be.

I'm psychotherapist Richard Nichols and this episode is titled Motivation. And if you're ready,

we'll start the show. Happy new month, you lovelies. Hope you've had a good start to your

summer. I've just got back from a couple of city breaks. I went to Prague and then

Vienna for a few days each, which was amazing. I don't get away very often, so it was quite

nice to see some different things. Nice to get back though and come back to work. And I know I'm

quite privileged to be in a job I don't need a week away to escape from,

because a lot of people live for their holidays and even their weekends.

And as Monday gets closer, every hour that goes by on a Sunday seems to sap their energy and their motivation

before finally Monday comes around and they've got to drag themselves along.

Energy and motivation are funny things, aren't they?

Some mornings, even if it takes a couple of strong coffees, we've got that spark.

We want to get things done.

And then there are other times where there's nothing. We go through the motions,

but the spark's gone. And that doesn't usually flip day to day. It tends to last in seasons.

We'll go through whole months where we're full of drive and then maybe whole months where we can't

be bothered. But we're still the same person.

Same brain, same body.

And in the absence of something like depression,

what's the difference between those two versions of us?

What actually is motivation?

...