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Motivating Yourself at Work

We all have occasional days of excruciating boredom. Every office has its share of petty in-fighting. Anyone who sees a towering in-box spill across the desk wants to weep openly.Push does come to shove, and most of us have the bruises to show for it. But productive people still motivate themselves at work in spite of circumstances. Sure, bad leadership is disappointing and unacceptable. Those with power in the organization may create an office culture that saps the life out of hard-working, valuable people. Or worse, our supervisors simply don’t notice that we’re having a difficult time getting the motivational juices flowing.

No matter what our job, no matter who we work for, we all need to develop the skill to motivate ourselves.

Set Your Own Standards
For each task or project, determine your own appropriate standards for quality, quantity, service, timeliness, accuracy and thoroughness. Whether the standards set by others are too high or too low, you can have peace that you achieved your personal goals. If your work exceeds low expectations, some bosses won’t care. If you fail to meet unreasonable expectations, at least you met your own. Create measurable goals. And be proud when you achieve them.

Recharge Along the Way
Carve out time for energizing activities. Are you a people-person facing several days of paperwork? Schedule lunch with a close friend and catch up. Are you a researcher making a series of uncomfortable phone calls? Break them up with some time reading information blogs or comparing product reviews and prices online. When you feel energy drain out of you, intentionally revitalize your work with activities that bring you to life.

Reward Yourself
Celebrate a little when you meet your goals. Give yourself some down time to surf the internet. Splurge on a nice meal out. You can even award yourself a little bonus. For completing a big project on time and under budget, plan to buy yourself that outfit or that gadget you’ve had your eye on. The anticipation of the reward will help you keep your heart and mind in the game in spite of obstacles.

We can blame others from dawn to dusk. We can wish others would be different. We can ask others to please be different. But in the end, we can only change ourselves. Try something new today to tap into the motivations that bring you alive at work.



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