Millions of Americans Feel the Winter Blues Every Year — and Lose Motivation Because of It. Use These 6 Tips to Get Your Goals Back on Track.

As the seasons change, daylight redeeming clip ends and we caput into the autumn and wintertime months, astir 5% of Americans acquisition seasonal affective disorder, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and astir 10%-20% get a milder shape of the wintertime blues.

While the percentages sound small, this still intends millions of moving Americans are besides flooded by the broadside effects, including problem concentrating, sadness and depression, anxiety, utmost fatigue and deficiency of energy, sleeping problems and different symptoms that impact our expertise to activity efficiently and productively. If you're emotion bluish while the upwind is gray, present are six things to thief you.

Related: Following These Five Practices Dramatically Improved My Mental Health — Find Out If They Could Help You, Too.

1. Remember what drives you and commencement there

There's ever a logic that we put clip successful the things that matter astir to us. However, these reasons are easy forgotten successful our darkest hours. When we hide the reasons we emotion our individual hobbies, master pursuits aliases families, we don't feel arsenic motivated to thin successful and enactment connected to them. That often causes to extremity doing them, which causes much depression.

Avoid this vicious rhythm by choosing to remember why you started moving aliases playing guitar successful the first place. Choose to retrieve really bully it feels to make a quality astatine activity aliases really proud you felt astir the past large task you finished. How we speak to ourselves matters and what we deliberation astir grows. So, make it a constituent to deliberation positively astir each the awesome things that devour abstraction successful your life.

As you do this, you'll consciousness much inspired to proceed them, and the enactment of doing those things (that typically make you consciousness good) will springiness you much energy, creating a domino effect of inspiration to do them again.

2. Keep a gratitude list

Positive psychology investigation has shown that gratitude is simply a cardinal driver of happiness. When I'm astatine my very best, I commencement each time by adding 2-3 circumstantial items to my gratitude database (a archive I support connected my individual computer) aliases successful my regular planner. I place mini wins aliases circumstantial moments that occurred successful the past 24 hours that brought maine joy. This shifts maine into an abundance mindset wherever I'm focused connected what's moving and what's going good versus a scarcity mindset wherever I'm focused connected what's not moving aliases what's going poorly. Once I've done this, it's harder for maine to revert to a spot of pessimism later successful the day, moreover if thing antagonistic aliases unexpected happens.

Related: Why Harnessing the Power of Gratitude is Vital to Your Success

3. Start each time by completing a mini task

My champion days are the ones that statesman pinch accomplishing a mini task aliases two. There's a logic that Admiral William McRaven's book, Make Your Bed, has complete 187,000 ratings shared betwixt Amazon and Goodreads. McRaven argues that you tin jumpstart your time by simply making your furniture each greeting because you'll already person proven to yourself that you tin complete projects and beryllium productive. Then, that mindset transfers to your adjacent group of tasks.

I've recovered this to beryllium true. In the mornings, I instantly make the furniture and tally the dishes correct aft meal (instead of waiting until later), I americium ever much productive and effective. It feels bully to get things done, and emotion bully provides america pinch the information to get more things done. Starting each time pinch the completion of a mini task catapults america into emotion bully and that catapults america into doing more. This serves arsenic different domino effect.

4. Talk astir it

Keeping our problems to ourselves seldom accomplishes anything. It tin beryllium awkward aliases embarrassing to share your feelings pinch others erstwhile you're sad, anxious aliases bored. But, vulnerably and courageously sharing wherever you're astatine pinch personification you spot besides feels good. Many group process, grieve and heal done the enactment of talking. Talking tin besides normalize what we're experiencing. Often, erstwhile I stock struggles pinch my mentor, partner aliases friend, I study I'm not alone. Usually, others will stock akin experiences aliases emotions they've had and really they overcame them. I typically locomotion distant emotion overmuch better.

5. Focus connected progress, not perfection

I was raised to beryllium some a perfectionist and happy each the time. When I expressed sadness aliases had the nervus to outcry astir something, I was often told to extremity and get "back connected track." Over the past decade, I've realized really detrimental this reasoning was. We're not machines, we're human. We each make mistakes and person bad days. We each brushwood situations that time off america emotion incompetent. Life isn't astir perfection; it's astir progress. Not only are you allowed to beryllium imperfect, you're supposed to beryllium imperfect.

In Don Miguel Ruiz's 1997 book, The 4 Agreements, "always do your best" is the 4th agreement. The book has sold complete 15 cardinal copies! Ruiz explains that our champion won't look the aforesaid each day. When we're tired, stressed aliases sick, we won't person arsenic overmuch to springiness arsenic erstwhile we're rested and healthy. Instead of asking yourself to beryllium without responsibility aliases flaw each day, simply inquire yourself if you gave your champion (whatever that was). Holding yourself to the modular of simply trying your champion is acold much rewarding and inspiring than expecting each time to beryllium perfect.

Related: Seek Progress, Not Perfection: Why Your Business Should Embrace the "Toothpick Rule"

6. Don't attraction connected things you can't control

Whenever we consciousness for illustration we're failing, we're often speedy to blasted outer factors that are out of our control for illustration our lousy boss, different section aliases marketplace conditions. Stop that. While it mightiness consciousness bully successful the moment, it's seldom effective and takes the attraction disconnected the only point that tin create change: You. Focusing connected outer factors doesn't thief you build a scheme for really you're going to get backmost connected track; it only leaves you emotion powerless and victimized. You can't power the economy, the weather, the past aliases different group — truthful don't discarded clip focusing connected those things. Every infinitesimal you walk citing factors extracurricular of yourself is simply a infinitesimal that you're not spending uncovering a solution.

Before I'd discovered these six practices, I knowledgeable acold much sadness and worry successful life. It was besides harder to retrieve from those feelings and sometimes, I hardly recovered astatine all. These practices are surefire ways to thief yourself restart and reset, sloppy of really depressed aliases sad you aftermath up feeling.