9 Tips to Boost Your Motivation
There are days when you will struggle to do even the easiest task. A short email can feel like an hour long torture session. These days can really test your will.
These rough days also give you a great opportunity to achieve significant personal growth at work. When you are struggling the most, you should rely on every resource you have.
I put together a list of 9 things you can do to shake off your blues and boost your motivation:
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Why Take the Risk of Being Successful in Unhappiness?
Every now and again, I like to bring you short interviews to give you a new perspective on work happiness. During my study of work happiness I have found that there are many paths to the same goal. Some people believe that loving what you do is a must, while other people believe that relationships are vital to enjoying the work that we do. Interviews are a great way to get out of your own perspective and see what other people are doing to develop their strengths and live their passions.
If you have never visited I Can Has CheezBurger you are missing out. It is simply one of the funniest websites around. People add comments to pictures of cats doing something weird. I borrowed one from the site. It’s in the upper left hand corner of this post. It’s a wonderful break from a tedious task. Ben Huh is the brilliant mind behind this website. I was lucky to have met him at SXSW this past month and he agreed to do an interview.
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The 100-100 Divide
In a perfect work environment we give 100% and our company gives 100%. Of course this never happens because we make choices based on how well we think we are treated. If your company didn’t give you a promotion, that you thought you deserved, would you still work as hard the next day?
No?
Wow, big shock.
When your manager/boss sees that you just don’t have the pep that you once had, they also pull back their desire to help you. This creates a divide that leaves everyone searching for answers
You may pull back and only give 75% of your energy, maybe taking slightly longer breaks or surfing Amazon for a new book. Your company wants you to work harder, but they’ve seen this reaction 700 times before and they don’t try to open a conversation to improve the disconnect.
Now that you’ve pulled back to 75% and no one cares, you realize that you can pull back to 50%.
You’re now working at 50% of your capacity because you can. You avoid work on some days and accomplish a lot on others, but on average you are giving 50% of your energy.
Your employer is troubled, but thinks it’s probably just a phase and before they do anything about it they realize that they’ve just created your expectations about what kind of work you need to do to get by.
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Save Money and Boost Energy at Work
This is a guest post by Nathalie Lussier of The Raw Foods Witch
Do you feel tired, unnecessarily distracted, or just frustrated at work? What if it were possible to change the way you feel about your work by changing the way your body operates at work. The premise is that by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, you’re going to experience positive results at work.
The concept of raw food may appear daunting at first, but it’s one of the simplest ways of eating for health. Everyone knows that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you, and raw food just takes that to the next level by recommending a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds that have not been heated above 112F.(Karl’s Note: Nathalie explains why you shouldn’t cook food about 112F on her site, “The reason being that food heated above 112 Fahrenheit loses some of its digestive enzymes.”)
The concept of raw is so powerful because it eliminates certain foods that are bad for your health, such as processed sugar and starch. Here are 5 good reasons why you might want to eat a raw food diet until dinner, and that includes eating raw at work.
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Dealing With Dread
(Can’t see the video? Then try watching it at Work Happy Now - Dealing with Dread)
Dealing with dread is one of the hardest parts of working with a difficult project. Watch how I cope and use the dread to my advantage.
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Value In Effort
(Can’t see the video? Then try watching it at Work Happy Now – Value In Effort)
The value that you feel you are giving matters. That’s what this video discusses. I talk about connecting to your actions and how easy it is to stay motivated when you care.
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Results are Only 1% of the Story
(Can’t see the video? Then click here and try watching it at Work Happy Now)
There is so much more to a project than just the results. If you play a game to win then you are setting yourself up for emotional pain. If you play to enjoy the game and you win in the process then you are creating emotional freedom.
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Motivated By Mistakes
(Trouble viewing the video? Then click here and try watching it at Work Happy Now)
How can you use mistakes to motivate you? That’s what this video explores.
I used to mentally beat myself up after every mistake. I was killing my own confidence. I needed to learn how to use mistakes as a way to give myself energy instead of sucking the life out of me. I figured it out. Can you?
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An Itch You Can’t Scratch
(Click here to view video at Work Happy Now)
We all have itches we can’t scratch. The question is…How do you deal with it? This video post discusses how to deal with your itch and figure out a way to indirectly scratch it, so you feel satisfied and ready to scratch that itch when the time is right.
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Work Worth Doing
(email subscribers: click here to go to Work Happy Now to view the video)
Once again the great lady, Gretchen Rubin, over at the Happiness Project gave me a post idea. She was talking to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the Justice gave her some advice on happiness that I couldn’t agree more with.
“I can tell you what I believe is the secret to a happy life,” she said.
“What’s that, Justice?” I asked. (Sidenote: when you speak directly to a Justice, you address him or her as “Justice” – e.g., “Justice, the cert petitions are here.” This, I always thought, must act as a frequent reminder to them about the value they are supposed to embody!) “What’s your secret?”
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