FOUR WAYS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF AT WORK
A recent study covering 182 countries by the International Research Firm Gallup indicates that only 13% of employees feel actually engaged at their work places worldwide.
This startling figure reveals that most employees don’t feel that their organizations fully engage with them. They do not feel psychologically safe or positively motivated to fully contribute to work.
This can be a common problem in today’s offices harming work place morale and career progression.
So let’s take a look at a few ways on how we can keep ourselves continuously motivated at office and positively contribute to our jobs:
Power of Goals
Goals have a powerful way of keeping us emotionally engaged with work and more focused. Knowing your True North and where you are headed in life, and then aligning that path to your job role is an easy way to link your personal goals and career goals together.
The experts talk about two broad types of goals – Proximal Goals and Distal Goals.
Proximal Goals are the short term goals you set to be achieved in near future and Distal Goals are the long term goals you plan out for your life.
As you achieve your daily proximal goals with the right Daily Habits, you will get a certain level of confidence and inspiration to keep going towards your longer term objectives in life. Goals must also cover the various spheres in your life; spiritual goals, health goals, relationship goals, careers goals – if they are to truly make a difference and keep you motivated. Constant and timely review of both your short term and long term goals will ensure you prioritize the right areas in your life, so that you do not go off course and are always on the right track to success.
Be a Learner
In this ever-more competitive corporate world, staying on top of your industry and learning about your respective field has never been more essential. We are at an age where young millennials and freshers are entering the job market either full or part qualified, and taking up various job roles which previously went to experienced individuals who were much less / not qualified.
Learning makes you feel that you are on top of your game and NOT growing old – since you are constantly learning something new every single day, expanding horizons and upgrading yourself with new ideas/ insights.
Being a Lifelong Learner can keep you motivated at office – since any new job role or additional responsibility you take on, can then be viewed as a learning opportunity or as a new skill upgrade.
Make Lasting Relationships
Strong bonds keep people together and are the life blood of organizations that keep high performance teams in play. Creating long lasting and strong relationships at office will drive you to go the extra mile at work and contribute whole heartedly to your job role, while surrounded by the people you trust.
The most successful leaders invest their time and efforts to create strong relationships within their teams – since this is a key driver ensuring optimal team productivity and motivation levels.
Convert Obstacles into Opportunities
Goals have a powerful way of keeping us emotionally engaged with work and more focused. Knowing your True North and where you are headed in life, and then aligning that path to your job role is an easy way to link your personal goals and career goals together.
Opportunities for growth and improvement may come in different forms at the work place. It may come as a compulsory transfer to another department or branch, maybe as a new job assignment or maybe a team reshuffle with some new members joining your team.
Neuroscience has shown that the human brain is programmed by default to keep human beings within certain comfort zones, when facing particular life situations. This is why some types of change seem hard at first and can bring down our motivation levels at work. But if we are willing to exit our comfort zones, we will then be able to see the positive side and actually convert a problem into a learning opportunity. This is known as Neuroplasticity. Through this process temporary changes can crystallize into long term changes (Human Learning) via consistent disciplined practice and are part of the brains learning curve.
The most successful leaders embrace this Growth Mindset, for they know that beyond comfort zones lie growth and opportunities.