How do you feel about your work? Do you like every hour spent working? Do you feel you’re doing your best? Are you motivated to do even better?Turns out, many of us don’t really like our jobs. People find no interest in their daily activities, they simply arrive in the morning to drink a cup of coffee and somehow spend the time till lunch. After lunch, it usually is much easier cause there’s only few hours left before going home. And day by day, it’s the same routine applied all over again. There’s a paycheck we get on certain days and that makes us think the justice has been served – we’ve gone through so many dull days of nothingness, and now at last we get paid for all the trouble.
Needless to say, such an approach isn’t going to get us anywhere. It is quite possible to spend your whole life working on some job for some company doing some useless tasks and never seeing anything better. We always find someone to blame for this, too. There’s usually a horrible manager who’s always asking for too much without giving credit for anything you’ve done already. Or sometimes it’s just a colleague of yours who’s so much better at what you do without any obvious reason. Sure, extra hours he works on a daily basis neither mean nor explain anything. It’s just unfair that people around you get all them brilliant opportunities for career advances or business trips, and you’re stuck forever in your swamp of doing such boring things it’s not even funny anymore.
Why do you think the above scenario is quite a possible one? It’s about your mindset.
How often do you find yourself limited by the ignorance and indifference? You feel like nothing you could do would even make a differnece. No matter how hard you work, there’s always going to be someone who’s so much better that he’s going to get bonuses and promotions, and you’ll be given his old job with no pay rise. How often do you have this feeling of changing something around you, but you stop yourself knowing for sure it’s not gonna matter to anybody?
I’m quite an optimistic guy myself, but even I can recall a few cases of such a depression. You can’t even call it a depression – sometimes the periods of you feeling miserable and nonsignificant go on for so long that you stop seeing them as depressions, but instead accept the state of the things and try to live with it. Luckily, it’s been a good few years since I’ve learned how to get rid of such depressions.
The key is about making difference. We often think that our actions will go unnoticed, or that credit for them will go to someone else, or that the bonus we’d really love to get would always end up in someone else’s pocket. This discourages us a lot, it brings our productivity down and it kills all the possible motivation we might have.
What you have to do is stop few things from happening. First and most important – if you feel like doing something good, never concentrate on the material outcome of such things. Trust me, your well being is not only about being wealthy. It’s about you being happy and content with yourself. It’s about feeling fullfilled and needed. It’s about being important enough for yourself.
So whenever it’s time for you to give yourself a possibly standard rejection of “Why do I care? It’s not gonna change anything at all”, instead concentrate on your pride and self-esteem which will be greatly pleased after you successfully accomplish your goal. Do every little thing for yourself. Imagine how much happier you’ll be if you know that every little step you take does matter! It will make a difference, and quite often it will be all the difference in the world.
At work, don’t think of the promotion you’re going to get right after you get this next project completed. Don’t! Because what happens is that while working on the project, you keep reiterating some of your thoughts. Inescapably you’ll start thinking of the promotion more and more, and soon enough you’ll naturally feel that the promotion is something you’re definitely going to get once you complete the task. It’s just an example here, but I’d like to use it for explaining why it’s wrong to expect too much.
You’re working on your project constantly reminding yourself that it’s soon to be completed, and that there’s a promotion to be received upon its completion. No matter how good you are, it’s quite possible you’re not going to be promoted though. So what you’ll feel is anger and disappointment, you’ll feel unfairly treated as if someone took what was already yours. And it will really hurt you bad, simply because thinking of the promotion over and over you got your mind accustomed to this idea so much that it does feel as something you already have. And then you complete the project, and you find our it’s time for you to start another one, and no promotion is there to talk about. Naturally you’ll be frustrated.
So what I suggest you do instead is motivate every task of yours, no matter how big or complex, with personal feelings of yours. Think of how much of a relief it will be to get something off your to-do list! Think of how proud you’ll be that you’ve completed something which took so many resources and time of yours! Try and vividly imagine the smile on your face once you finish some task. Treat everything as way to develop personally and to become happier with yourself.
If you fail to deliver the project on time – it still must have been a good learning experience. Try your best to finish it off as soon as possible, set yourself another deadline and think of how proud you’ll be when you meet it. Think of how much better you’ll become in project management or in a particular taks you’ve been given after you successfully accomplish it.
The important thing is that there are no failures. There are easy and hard ways of self-growth. No matter what you do and how and when you accomplish it, it’s still a personal growth. And that’s what you have to focus on. Later, possibly few months or even years later, you’ll feel very happy with yourself looking back.
One more thing: concentrating on personal growth also ensures you always get something out of any task. You’ll never feel disappointed again, because you’re always going to be a personal winner of yourself. And believe me, being a winner is just the kind of motivation you’ll like!
It takes time to change your point of view and start working on anything in the way I’ve just told you about, but it’s well worth it. Once you concentrate on personal success, even negative sides of the tasks you’re given start having far less negative impact on your thinking and your actions – they will not seem to be as bad anymore. What this means is that you won’t be as stressed about them, and this will boost your productivity yet again.
After this, it’s only a matter of time before you become successful in anything you do. Just stick to the rules I’ve outlined, and see what happens!
The last argument I’d like to bring up today is about making the difference. Don’t ask yourself if you’re going to make any difference. Don’t hesitate for even a second that your actions may go unnoticed. DO THEM! Do them the best you can, and remember they’ll make huge difference to yourself. That’s the most important thing! Once you concentrate on this, try and forget all the worries about all the rest. People DO notice what you’re doing, and sooner or later you’ll find that it’s not someone else, but you are in the spotlight! Give it some time and practice, and no bonus or promotion will escape you.
When looking at some complex tasks I always think: Boy, that’s a hell of a work to do. Is this going to be hard? Absolutely. Is this going to be rewarding? Positively! The harder the task, the more personal growth it will trigger for me. If somebody else could make the difference in this situation, why should I think I can’t?
So no matter how dull your work may seem on rare days, always stick to the plan. Making a difference. It’s all about it. Making a difference to yourself. Don’t listen to what people say, even when they’re trying really hard to discourage you. As long as the task matters to you, it’s worth a shot and it stands a pretty good chance of success. So even if it seems that you’re doing something really small and nonimportant, keep on working – and you’ll be amazed how quickly you’ll become a success.