Would 2025 be the year of all successes for PSG? After winning the Champions League on May 31, the Parisian football club awaits the final of the Club World Cup on May 31, for a global coronation. But after? What will he have to defeat? How can a sportsman still surpass himself when he won everything? And beyond this case, how to continue to be efficient when you have been successful? We asked a psychologist the question.
The lack of motivation is far from being reserved for those who are struggling
How to find motivation when you won everything? The question rarely arises, at least openly, admits the psychologist. “”Because it seems almost indecent. Because we think that the lack of motivation is for those who are struggling. Not for those who succeed or who have succeeded everything! “.
But first surprise, it can indeed happen to those for whom everything seems to go: a career that works, a stable family, recognition, successes … “Despite this, or because of this, fatigue, weariness can “impose itself. As something that goes out”.
As in high level sport. What remains to prove when we have already won everything? This is an existential question. And which concerns everyone, finally.
The illusion created by success
Because there is a silent irony in success: we spend years running afterwards, dreaming of it, aiming. And one day, we reach it. Recognition is there, the objectives are checked, the applause resonates. And yet something is missing.
“It is sometimes more difficult to continue after the victory than to achieve it” underlines the psychologist.
This paradox of “all won” is more common than you think. Many athletes, artists, entrepreneurs or leaders testify to this feeling of emptiness after the feat. Inner vertigo. Not because they are ungrateful or dissatisfied, but because the authentic motivation is not where it was expected.
The notion of meaning must become a compass
But Amélie Boukhobza, psychologist, rightly reminds us: deep motivation cannot be drawn from the results, but in the sense that we give to our actions.
“True motivation does not come from the outside. It comes from the meaning we put in what we do. And this sense, it must be readily readily readily.”
The problem is therefore not so much to have succeeded, but to continue to feel aligned with what we do. “”What tasted yesterday may no longer resonate today. And that’s normal. The danger is not to realize it – or to continue despite everything, out of habit, by pressure, or for fear of emptiness. “
What motivates, in reality, is not the result. This is the path. Effort. The desire to do better, or fair … sincerely. When the flame is weakening, it is not a question of turning an artificial fire, but of returning to what makes vibrate. This sometimes requires slowing down, stopping, questioning yourself.
“And if the real question was not: how to continue when everything worked? But what still has taste, meaning, for me?”.
This question is powerful. She invites introspection, humility, but also to a form of freedom: that of reinventing her own journey.
Some concrete tracks to find the momentum
- Change rhythm. Sometimes just change the tempo. Go from a “productive” mode to a “creative” mode. Or vice versa. Accelerate or slow down to listen to what body and mind have to say;
- Explore a new territory. Getting out of your skill area, even briefly, can revive curiosity and the pleasure of learning. It can be a new project, an artistic practice, an associative commitment, or even an internal journey. “It is by putting a little unknown into the known, a little risk in comfort, that the momentum is revived”;
- Reintroduce doubt and game. Mastery is comfortable, but it can also become boring. Return to an apprentice posture, allow yourself not to know, to improvise, to play, stimulates the circuits of the reward in the brain. “”The brain needs novelty to activate its dopamine circuit “;
- Repeat something to zero. It can be saving to embark on a project without stake, without expectations, just out of desire. Even tiny. The important thing is to reconnect to the pleasure of the pure gesture, without performance pressure;
- Take a conscious break. And sometimes you also have to agree to do nothing. To let the void settle, to feel what comes up naturally. “Slow down. Repeat something. Or do nothing – to feel what calls.”
Finally, for our expert, having won everything is not the end of the story. It is a bifurcation. An invitation to redefine what “succeed” means, no longer in terms of image or objectives, but in terms of inner resonance. If you are wondering where your motivation has gone … Ask yourself this question: what makes me want to start again?