Even with the stimulating working environment, great paycheck, and the work post you’ve always wanted, you can still underperform if you aren’t feeling motivated enough. What’s ironic about this statement is the fact that a lot of people believe motivation to come from these three issues that we mentioned in the previous sentence. Of course, it’s a lot easier to get demotivated if you believe you are being underpaid or if you are spending day after day in a hostile workplace but this isn’t always the case.
Workplace demotivation also comes from the lack of progress, job insecurity, lack of confidence in company leadership or some clear examples of favoritism within the office. Aside from these, there are numerous other reasons why one can get demotivated, however, since they’re mostly subjective, we won’t discuss them at length. Here are a couple of methods that are known aids in overcoming the lack of motivation for work.
Stop Obsessing with the Best-Case Scenario
The first major mistake that you might be making is a belief that the best-case scenario is possible in real life. Sure, fantasizing about everything going your way is a natural thing, however, if this ends up in a major frustration when things don’t go down your way, this might be a bit counter-productive and even outright demotivating.
Furthermore, the chances of the best-case scenario coming to life in its purest form are just too unlikely to ever be taken seriously. Instead, you should focus on what you have and try to appreciate the fact that some things are, in fact, going your way.
Stop Worrying About the Loss of Job
Of course, the lack of concern over your job is only natural but once it starts getting in the way of your overall performance, you will have to do something about it. First of all, you need to trust in your ability to find a rewarding employment somewhere else within your industry. Being desperate, clingy and even demotivated will cause your employers to see you as a less valuable asset, which is something you want to avoid at any cost.
You see, an average person is expected to change about 12 jobs over the course of their career. Therefore, getting demotivated, obsessed and even depressed over the prospect of a loss of your current job simply isn’t worth the trouble. This, however, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care whether you keep the job or not, only that you shouldn’t obsess about it.
If worse comes to worst, you can always do something productive if ever you lost your job. You can do things to improve and develop your credentials by taking a civil engineering masters degree, if you’re into the field of engineering. Losing a job won’t be a problem if you got a set of skills a company needs as this will give you an edge in your career. This time can also be an opportunity to recharge and bring back your motivation.
Improve Your Workstation
In a situation where your workplace, in general, isn’t well-optimized for work, you could at least make a compromise by working a bit on your own workstation. You see, by creating a stimulating work environment you can make sure you get a better performance. Better performance, in turn, usually leads to a boost in motivation.
To start with this, you need to clean out the place a bit. Start by discarding anything you haven’t used in a previous year. If it is an item you can’t afford to discard for good, you could simply find a local storage unit.
Apart from this, writing down your long-term goal on a whiteboard at your workstation or setting it as a background on your computer might be a great idea. Finally, adding some vacation mementos, as well as personal gifts and photographs might further improve the way in which you see your workplace.
Don’t Compete with Others
While being competitive usually turns out to be great for one’s overall performance, competing with others isn’t the best of ideas. First of all, the other person might have an easier job, better equipment or even be favored by the management. Same could go in your favor, as well. In either case, you never start on the equal grounds, which means that you will lack objective metrics to determine whether you are outperforming someone or being outperformed by them.
The only person you should compete with is yourself, seeing as how this is the only kind of progress (even success) you can objectively monitor. Furthermore, it will give you a hint on which of the aspects of your career are in desperate need of some improvement.
Identify What’s Causing a Halt in Your Progress
Finally, one of the most important reasons for workplace discomfort is the fact that you simply aren’t progressing either in your skills or in your career. In order to overcome this obstacle, you need to understand what it is that’s holding you back. For instance, you might have learned all there is at your current workplace and now there’s no new skill for you to master.
On the other hand, the reasons for your problem could also be external. You see, your boss might be preventing you from advancement (for whatever reason). At the very end, you might have been overestimating yourself when it comes to your overall readiness for advancement. In any case, you need to know where the problem lies in order to remedy it. Just keep in mind that each of the above-listed issues has a solution.
In Conclusion
One thing is certain, suffering from the lack of motivation is not something you should stand for, seeing as how this problem isn’t likely to resolve itself on its own. While active, it will prevent you from growing professionally and even giving your best at your current job. Sure, overcoming this requires a lot of effort and determination on your part but if you want to change something there’s no alternative.
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