7 Simple Ways to Maintain Motivation for Career Success

“When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” – Creighton Abrams

Moving up the career ladder is quite a monumental task that requires focus, motivation, and action. With these three elements, you are set up for success in your career. If only it’s that easy to get these three puzzle pieces in one person at the right time!

With tons of distractions around us, it has become increasingly hard to keep track of goals and maintain motivation. We feel our time being consumed, but very little work aligned to the fulfillment of your career goal is done at the end of the day.

7 Simple Ways to Maintain Motivation for Career Success

Here are 7 simple things you can check out to boost your productivity and maintain your work motivation:

1. Take small bites from your big goal.

There is nothing wrong with dreaming big and painting a huge picture of how you want your future to be. However, looking at your dream board may be a little overwhelming sometimes. When you’re feeling a bit low, these goals may seem impossible to reach – and there goes your motivation down the drain.

Career movement may take years. The key here is breaking your career goals into smaller pieces. This way, no matter how small, you get to progress little by little. These little accomplishments can help you fuel your motivation in the long run.

2. Celebrate small wins.

When you get to cross a milestone from your broken down mini-goals, celebrate. It’s a step closer to your ultimate goal. You may have just crossed your first-mile marker from your hundred-mile goal, but look at it this way, you only have 99-mile markers to cross! Each mile marker you cross brings you closer to your goal.

3. Stop worrying about the things you can’t do.

Worry is crippling. When you start worrying, it consumes your precious time and opens up a rabbit hole. When you dive into that rabbit hole, it’s easy to lose motivation. Before you jump in, ask yourself if it’s worth your time to worry about that thing. Or you can just let it go and focus on the things that matter more and things you can do.

4.  Take a step forward.

Change, whatever type of change, can bring anxiety. It’s always easier to keep the status quo and stay in your comfort zone. What’s tried and tested is far safer than what is unknown. However, progress requires you to step outside the box. It requires you to think radically and move boldly.

5. Step back and refine your plans.

Out of the hundreds of ideas you have, only a few of them will be tested. Out of these few ideas, still, many will fail. Behind every action is a well thought of plan that required hours of formulation before execution. It is disheartening and demotivating to see your ideas and plan execution fail.

Sulking over failure is a good plan. However, reviewing, evaluating, and refining your plan would do you a lot better in forwarding your career. There will be more failed attempts before reaching your goal. Get used to the failure and focus most of your time on how to not fail next time.

6.  Gamify your task.

A few people don’t seem to lack motivation and passion for whatever they are doing. It makes mere mortals, like us, look like slacking off and uninterested in our endeavor! It’s just that routine tends to become boring in the long run, that’s the problem.

To make things more interesting, you can devise a way to gamify work. Set challenges to break your routine. You can even involve your colleagues and extend the challenge to them to increase productivity!

7. Rest and take forced breaks.

When you are on a roll, it may seem like stopping for a while would be counter-productive and break the momentum. It may feel like taking a break is a waste of precious productive hours. You may even sacrifice sleep, rest, and pull-off all-nighters to get things done!

Although it’s tempting to get everything done all at once, sleep and rest are of paramount importance. Working non-stop can cloud your perspective, and you might miss out on a few details of your project. Renewing your perspective is important to see your progress in a different light.

Prioritize your sleep and rest to make sure that your brain is in top shape. Optimize your sleeping quarters, get the best pillow, and track your sleep to ensure you are getting enough rest.

Read this also: The Best Ayurvedic Remedies For Your Anxiety Problem

Conclusion

Sometimes, we get inspired by life events and wisdom from the people around us. This pushes us and fuels our motivation to pursue our goals to the end. There are also times that you don’t feel like you’re gaining progress, and it discourages you from doing your best.

Remember, life is a marathon. If you sprint too hard, you might not get that far. Set a challenging pace that you can manage. Build on top of your progress and increase your pace as you get better.