Professional motivation and workplace engagement have become bigger problems than ever before. More and more people are feeling disengaged and under-appreciated at the office.
In fact, only 13 percent of people are totally engaged at work, a Gallup survey suggests. In contrast, 24 percent of people are actively disengaged and 63 percent feel not engaged.
While the workplace environment and the management contribute a lot to a motivational workplace, the attitude of the individual employee will also matter.
If you’re feeling disconnected and you no longer have the desire to head to the office every morning, chances are that you’ll need to look for some change and motivation for work. A few simple modifications of your professional routine could lead to improvements.
Here are a few of the best ways to accomplish the goal.
Build Your Own Inspirational Routine.
Many people are guilty of a simple mistake – they wait for inspiration to come from an external source. The obvious problem with this approach is that the desired outcome may never happen unless a person is actively engaged.
As you become more confident and you gain more knowledge in the respective field, you may start feeling that opportunities are narrowing down. Confidence comes with experience but this confidence could also make people close-minded.
You always have to maintain a learning and curious mode in order to feel excited about your job. Otherwise, you may enter a state that’s called earned dogmatism and that’s characterized by rather rigid professional thinking.
There are so many things you can do to develop an inspirational routine. Taking a professional course is always a great idea.
The same applies to webinars, reading books, going to conferences and interacting with other professionals in the field.
Such opportunities will always teach you something new and give you the opportunity to feel enthusiastic about the job that you do.
Keep a Clear Vision of Your Goals.
Being stuck in the everyday professional routine can make you forget about your professional goals and dreams. Sooner or later, you’ll lose sight of the ideal because you’re stuck dealing with mundane problems and everyday complications.
It’s crucial to always have a reminder of what you’re interested accomplishing in the long run.
If you’ve spent some time at a certain company, you may want to revisit your goal. Where would you like to be in a few years from now? Are you making progress? A negative answer could be indicative of being stuck without prospects of moving forward.
For some people, the answer will be a complete change of professional specialization. Yes, there are instances of writers becoming dancers and vice versa. The aim of the example is to let you know that you’re not limited to your current field.
Chances are that you took a job to survive for a certain period of time and that’s ok. Right now, you may have the chance to pursue your professional dream. If this is the case, you shouldn’t fear the change but rather embrace it as a way to accomplish your long-term goal.
The everyday routine can kill creativity and keep employees from realizing their full potential. This is an issue that many companies struggle with.
Still, it’s also up to you to discover the balance between the boring tasks that you have to deal with and the prospects of achieving growth. Keeping a constant reminder of what you’re trying to do can make things easier.
Find a Mentor.
While you may be a rather accomplished professional, there’s still a lot to learn in the corporate world. Acquiring knowledge through first-hand experience is one of the most powerful approaches when it comes to staying motivated.
A professional mentor can give you the strength, drive and knowledge to move forward even when you feel like giving up. Such people have invaluable information because they’ve gone through the same struggles and they’ve come up with real-life, practical solutions.
While mentors are predominantly sought to be entrepreneurs, professionals can also learn from the experience of highly-skilled representatives of the field.
You can come in contact with such professionals via social media, networking events and corporate interactions. Maintaining a network of individuals that have similar professional experiences can be invaluable when it comes to long-term development.
Find the Value and the Lessons in Things that You Hate.
The manner in which you approach professional tasks can be determining for the outcome of your experience.
Even the most boring of tasks could teach valuable lessons if you’re open to embracing the opportunity. In essence, your attitude will determine whether you’re dealing with a wonderful opportunity or the most tedious task on earth.
Learning to extract something valuable from the activities that you hate will take time and patience. This isn’t an easy adjustment by any stretch of the imagination. Looking for something positive, however, will give you the drive and a level of engagement that you haven’t known before.
Imaging a grueling conversation that you need to have with a dissatisfied client, for example. No human being feels happy and motivated about getting yelled at.
Such a difficult conversation, however, can help you grow your patience and learn a bit more about human psychology. In addition, you will feel incredibly fulfilled when the job is done and will find more motivation for work.
Learn How to Deal with Negative Thoughts.
If you find yourself regularly battling a negative inner voice just to get through the day, you need to work on your emotional agility.
Emotional agility is the mental dexterity to process negative thoughts that arise in your daily routine. It means being able to categorize those that are helpful survival impulses from those that – whether they’re based in truth or otherwise – can only bring you down.
If you feel a crushing sense of failure every time something small goes wrong, or you have a habit of taking responsibility for everybody else’s bad mood, or you default to worst-case-and-beyond scenarios when work is tough – then you need to have a good long chat with yourself!
It’s not as difficult as all that to tone up your emotional agility.
In fact, once you’ve learned a few basic principles they will start to become second nature. So that you deal with negative thoughts almost automatically as you work, leaving excess energy to direct towards getting things done.
The first step is to acknowledge your negative thoughts rather than leave them nagging away at the back of your mind.
Give that thought or feeling a name, and confront it: is it true? Then what can you do about it? Is it helpful? If not, then forget about it! Is it important? Perhaps you need to share it.
If those worries persist, you can take evasive action instead.
Get out of your mind by focusing on your body, going for a walk or taking some deep breaths at the window. A short mindfulness exercise can help you to regain some perspective; handwriting a note about a recent success is a great way to buoy your morale.
Sometimes your negative thoughts will be rooted in actual failures or mistakes.
That’s fine, and again you should flag and listen to them; but don’t let them hold you back. Instead, use these thoughts to learn from your experiences, and value your failures as part of the adventure on your route to success.
Again, it can be helpful to write down what went wrong and what you’ve learned. Processing your thoughts objectively like this can help to exorcise them from that part of your mind that just seems to harbor bad feelings without making use of them.
This new visual guide to emotional agility is packed with ideas on how you can banish those negative thoughts or use them to build productivity. Get these down, and you’ll find your emotional arsenal is equipped to blast through the bad days at work and move forward to even greater successes.
Know When to Change Things up.
On occasions, even the best of intentions will be insufficient to keep your motivation level high.
When you feel that you can no longer move forward, you may have to consider a change of workplace. Looking for a new opportunity may be all that you need to stay on track and to feel that inspiration once again.
Seeking change can be difficult and uncomfortable. After all, routines are comfortable and familiar. You should, however, be rational when it comes to assessing your current situation. If your current place of employment doesn’t seem capable of offering anything new and fulfilling, it may be time to move on.
Trust your instincts and be proactive when it comes to building your professional reputation. Your career is in your hands and nobody else should be responsible for the provision of motivation and opportunities.
While getting out of the rut is going to be difficult at first, you will soon understand just how much you’ve missed the feeling of being inspired and eager to get started on your professional tasks.
About The Author
This article was written by Amelia White. With years of experience in the field of content marketing, she enjoys a solid and successful career. Over the years, she has helped dozens of clients in need of a creative and innovative advertising approach. Apart from practicing the profession, White also enjoys writing about productivity and motivation.