You can’t.
That’s the accurate answer to the question you’ve asked. If you really don’t want to do something, you cannot motivate yourself to do it.
However, there are lots of things that we say we don’t want to do, which ultimately we do want to do, because in one way or another they’re beneficial or fulfill some other purpose. For instance, you may say “I don’t want to go to work today” but you know that if you don’t go, you’ll lose your job. So the motivation that gets you to work is not the desire to be at work, but the desire to keep to your job.
So perhaps the question to ask is:
How do I motivate yourself to do the things that I say I don’t want to do?
And the answer to that question is:
- Identify the benefit that you will gain from doing it – realising that it may not be directly related to doing the thing itself
- Get really present to your desire to have that benefit
- Make a plan for what you are going to do (can be really simple)
- Commit to following your plan
- Align your environment with following your plan – for example I often say “I don’t want to go to the gym” when I wake up at 6am, but I lay out my gym gear the night before so that it’s there as a reminder of my commitment.
- Do it
- If you don’t do it (and there will be times that you don’t), don’t beat yourself up and tell yourself you’re a failure. Just return to question 1 and go through the process again.
- Enjoy your successes
(This my answer to a question asked on Quora)