Being Motivated at Work: It's Possible!

It is an unfortunate yet undeniable reality that we are all stressed to some extent. Some may be more while other less, but we all seem to be doing a million things at once, and days seem to be at least a few hours too short. Amidst this seemingly endless bustle, motivation is an essential lifeline. Which is why I would like to share with you some tips from BigThink about how to be motivated at work and make your days count.

Motivation at work is all a matter of good intentions

To be truly motivated at work, you can’t simply be mechanically repeating the same thing over and over. Intentions matter: do you know why you’re doing what you’re doing? Are you able to give it all you’ve got?

The problem with most companies is that they are sacrificing the opportunity to create true motivation in their employees in exchange for short term efficiency. Meetings, cubicles, schedules, timetables: they are all oriented towards improving results pretty much immediately. It ends up being far too easy to create obligations to feel productive, without producing any actual value.

Take email, for example. How many new emails arriving in your inbox every day? If you were up for it, you could most likely spend a very large majority of your time simply organizing and managing your email account. And you may even reach the end of the day and look at your empty inbox and feel proud and productive… but you won’t actually have produced any value.

The key, therefore, is not in keeping busy, but rather in defining real and concrete long terms goals, and saving time to actually work towards them. If you want to feel motivated at work, think of the things you will actually remember in 6 months or 5 years, which you will still be proud of having achieved. And keeping your inbox crystal clean everyday is most likely not one of them.

• We also recommend reading: Chief happiness Officer: What do they do and why are they important? 

---

"Define your long terms goals and

dedicate time to work towards them."

---

How do you get your team to be motivated?

Teams also need to think of long term goals and set aside some time to work towards them, because no one else is going to protect their time. But aside from using their time wisely, they also have another vital mission: to motivate each other. In order to do so, there are two keys:

• Being thankful, and showing it. Teams need to take the time to thank their teammates for their work, and make sure they know how much they contribute to the team. Only like this with they truly feel valued and able to keep up their motivation in the long run.

• Encouraging (real) teamwork. As human beings we are inevitably social beings, and, as such, are made to work together and care about and for each other. Sometimes, we even make sacrifices for other that we would not be willing to make for ourselves. Only team members who really feel valued and happy in their team and environment will be able to do their best and unleash their full potential into their work.

True motivation and happiness in the workplace is not only real, it is realistic, and should be a reality for each and every person out there.