Every day I get up at 7:08am. I’m on the road by 7:52am. Swipe my company ID at 8:23am. I walk in, boot up my computer, put my lunch in the fridge and settle in for a day that is already looking like yesterday.
I can sit at my desk and clank away at the keyboard for hours. I can take my lunch break at 1pm and tell everyone to "have a good night" at 4:30pm. The point is, that many of us get sucked into the monotonouss world of corporate routine. There’s no cheerleader urging me on to complete that latest project with a bang. No kind words of appreciation. No true incentive. At the end of the week, it will be the same paycheck.
But fear not!
Here are five tools that will help self-motivate – and they’re all less embarrassing then bringing pom-poms to work!
Set Personal Goals. Long-term, short-term and everything in between! Write them down and keep them visible. Look at them often and assess what you are doing to reach them. Failure is not an option. Be sure to reward yourself – as long as it means you don’t fall off the wagon.
Look on the bright side. Feed your heart and mind positive info on a regular basis and you can actually retrain yoursubconscious to have a better attitude. Think about it, Who would YOU rather feel like at work: Tony Little or Tony Soprano. Be infectious, you’ll not only stimulate your co-workers – but others too.
Do not compare. Whatever lights your fire, is OK! Some people want to achieve success so they can accumulate wealth and fame. Others just want to feel accomplished. Many just want to show their ex-friends on MySpace how successful they’ve become. Try to do it for you, but I say grab onto whatever makes you move and ride the wave. It’s also okay to use simple motivations – like the fact that your current job is feeding the family and keeping a nice roof over your head.
See the future. Visualize what it will be like to finish whatever you are working on in a positive light – even if it’s not terribly realistic. For example, if you boss just asked you to write a proposal comparing X to Y, see yourself completing it to perfection – and then getting rewarded with a trip to Hawaii. Don’t underestimate the power of self-fulfilling prophecy. We usuallythink of the phenomenon leading to bad stuff, but it can lead to good too!
Keep rolling. A mistake many of us make is getting too many opinions (solicited or not) from other people. If you believe in a project, you must go with it and let criticism bounce off of you. Tenacity is half the battle. Once you start putting too much credence into other people’s beliefs, you will surely shortchange your efforts. Sometimes, so I don’t get discouraged, I keep a project to myself. And when it’s complete, I sell it like it’s the best thing since Mallowmars.
As always, this blog is about you, Average Joe worker! So share in the comments what works for you when it comes to self-motivation.
One last piece of advice, which comes from media mogul Russell Simmons who once imparted this knowledge when we were interviewing him for a TV segment – and I’m paraphrasing:
"If you tell yourself you’re a lawyer, you ARE a lawyer. You don’t need a piece of paper telling you that you are. Go to the library. Read the books. Believe that you are a lawyer, tell people, get cards made up – and at that moment – you are a lawyer."
Look, this statement might have some flaws. And I don’t think Russell was suggesting anyone impersonate a profession. But I think his point is pretty clear: you are what you believe. I hope you make yourself a success! Also, let us help! Click the subscribe button to the right of this blog and we’ll do our best to keep your spirits up!
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