Depending on where you work, it may be really difficult to find inspiration at the office. Perhaps your boss is just too hands-off or detached, and you’re just having a hard time feeling engaged.
The good news is that you can remedy the situation. You just need to find motivation from within says inc. “Employees have more control than they realise over their ability to build and sustain motivation in the workplace,” motivational psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson tells writer Julie Mosow in the Harvard Business Review.
It might take some effort on your part, but it is definitely possible. Here are some of Mosow’s helpful tips for motivating yourself at work when your boss just isn’t doing it.
1. Figure out what drives you. Ask yourself when you last felt a sense of meaning and purpose at work and determine what the conditions were so that you can recreate them yourself.
2. Set goals. Take a step back and put together a long-term career plan. Figure out what you want to accomplish and how you can get there. These kinds of goals aren’t the day-to-day tasks that need to get done; they’re the big-picture things you’d like to tackle. Just make sure not to overwhelm yourself with unmanageable goals.
3. Put together “if-then”plans. Be prepared for challenges and setbacks by anticipating obstacles. For example, you might say, “If I don’t finish this project by the end of the week, I will come in early on Monday to finish it up.”
4. Ask for feedback. It’s important to evaluate yourself, but if your managers aren’t automatically giving you feedback, you should feel comfortable asking them to do so.
5. Expand your network. If your boss isn’t motivating you, look for support elsewhere. Find a mentor, either within your company or somewhere in your industry. This guidance and added perspective will help you grow.
6. Focus on learning. Try to be OK with imperfection and acknowledge that any mishap is an opportunity for learning. It is important to steer away from results-oriented thinking and focus on the overall learning.
Image: Motivation via Shutterstock
