Use Your Passion to Motivate Yourself
Motivate yourself by connecting to the passion in life and work.
Today’s topic is using passion to motivate you at work.
Hello Stever, this is Reid. I’ve been listening to your podcasts and they’re great. And I have a question for you, for your podcast. Every time, whenever I go to work, I really just lose enthusiasm before I get there, so this may be more of a psychology question than an organizational question. But, I’m wondering if you have any tips about how to maintain a spark, or maintain that special spark (how ’bout that)? Maintain enthusiasm for work before you get there. When I lose that enthusiasm, I lose energy and it seems to sap my organizational ability or my effectiveness.
Reid, the quick and dirty tip comes from Monty Python’s movie, Life of Brian: Always look on the bright side of life, or at least, find where you’re passionate and concentrate on that.
Find What You Love About Your Job
Connecting to your true motivators can be powerful. Nineteen-year-old Ryan Allis was passionate about entrepreneurship. He started a little company and by age 23 was running at $10 million per year. I met him through a mutual friend and asked his secret. He brings passion to everything he does, in part by keeping the passion front-and-center.
Think, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Trite, I know, but it works. When you’re driving to work, chances are that you’re going over all the ways your job sucks. You’re reviewing that nasty e-mail a customer sent, or the boredom you felt waiting for your computer to reboot, or worse, Bernice’s new polyester pants suit. Yes, Lycra stretches. Way too far.
But don’t dwell on the Lycra. Dwell on your dear friend Bernice and how much you love her. See? Even abject terror can change to love with the right mindset. You need to, Reid, find where there’s passion in your job. Focus on that and let it pull you forward. People find passion in different places. Let’s explore where you can find yours.
Do You Love Your Tasks?
What you love may be the tasks you do. You’re a total numbers geek, and nothing thrills you more than spending a quiet evening by candlelight, creating a 200 by 200 spreadsheet model of Wal-Mart’s expansion into Asia. You’ll be single for life, but that’s OK. A friend of mine worked as a negotiator and loved the challenge of finding a middle ground where both parties felt, um, equally dissatisfied. Put your attention on the tasks you love and let them charge you up.
Do You Love Your Industry?
You may love your industry or your company most. Think: entertainers. They’re so dazzled by the industry, they’ll wait tables, all the while keeping their motivation high by deriving great personal satisfaction from knowing they’re “in the business.” Hmm… When the Get-it-Done Guy goes video, I’ll be accepting applications for unpaid slav… er, interns.
Do You Love the People You Work With?
Relationships may be your key. You love your colleagues at work, or serving customers, or spending quality time with your strategic partners’ purchasing agent. You might enjoy the actual relationships for their own sake, or you might enjoy the roles and what you represent to each other. Personally, I love helping people become more skillful and more successful. When one of my first clients climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro after our work together, it changed my life knowing I’d played a part in making that happen. If relationships are your key, your energy comes from touching other people… appropriately, of course.
Does Your Job Give You Freedom?
And if all else fails, ask yourself why you’re working at that job, anyway? You may remember you took it because it would give you enough free time to pursue your blindfolded trumpet tap dance routine. Imagine taking an exciting job like being an actuarial accountant, because you know you can save up enough to retire for life in six years. Even if you hate the job, counting down the days until retirement can be very motivating. And being an actuary, you can even know if the odds are in your favor of living until that age-40 retirement!
Life gives you everything. You have tasks, an industry, a company, people, roles you play, and outcomes you’re striving for. You pick and choose what you’ll react to. Grab a piece of paper and list out all those aspects of your job. Find the ones that appeal to you and reactivate your passion by paying attention to what lights your fire, while ignoring the parts of the job that just don’t do it for you.
Is It Time to Change Jobs?
If there’s no aspect of your job that excites you, it may be time to consider a major change. Since visiting San Diego, I’ve always viewed the surfer beach-bum lifestyle with envy. Or maybe you can become an entrepreneur. Use your interests to find out a bit about how you can build your empire, make a difference, and live your passion.
This is Stever Robbins. If you have a question about how to Work Less and Do More, e-mail getitdone@quickanddirtytips.com or leave voicemail at . Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter or visit blog steverrobbins getitdoneguy.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
