Staying motivated can be a challenge sometimes when it comes to career growth. A course you were working on starts to get dry and boring and you lose your motivation. Or a project you’re working on doesn’t go as well as you thought, so you start to procrastinate and lose the drive to complete it.
Work projects that you were confident about now are overwhelming. It’s critical to find your motivation again so you can grow in your career and be happy you did.
Finding Motivation for Career Growth
Feelings are the link to help you stay motivated for career growth. Trying to reason with yourself never seems to work. Most of the time it’s your feelings that make or break your motivation.
Negative emotions like feeling unhappy, discouragement or stress will most likely lead to procrastination. But when you’re feeling happy, confident and excited, this fuels your motivation.
Positive feelings are an important part of staying motivated.
Strategies To Cultivate a Positive Attitude
Here are some strategies to cultivate a positive attitude when you need a boost of motivation.
1. Visualize your goals.
You can motivate yourself by imagining what your life will be like once you’ve reached the career growth you’re aiming for. Think about how you’ll feel when that course or project is completed. Use those images to motivate you.
2. Be realistic.
You want to create goals when you’re planning for career growth. But those goals need to be realistic or else you’re setting yourself up for failure. The trick is to break your goals into smaller goals and do one step at a time.
3. Have a setback plan.
Setbacks will probably happen. Be prepared for when they do. Have a plan as to how you’re going to deal with them. Don’t think of them as a failure, but a learning opportunity. You can analyze what went wrong and how you can do better in the future. Then renew your energy towards your goals.
4. Learn positive self-talk.
Encourage yourself with positive self-talk. Make a list of the things you’ve accomplished and use that list to encourage you. Maybe you’re afraid of failure. If you are, then you’ll look at a task and think you’ll never be able to do it. But if you tell yourself it’s a learning opportunity and a way to test your skills, then you’ve created a positive situation for yourself.
5. Develop a routine.
Developing a routine is a powerful way to stay motivated. The more you stick to studying or doing certain tasks for a set number of hours, the easier it will get. Even if you start an exercise routine, it will help to cultivate discipline. And discipline helps you complete the goals you set out to finish.
Related: 5 Steps to Create A Personalized Daily Routine
6. Create a competitive environment.
Friendly competition with your colleagues can help you with your career growth. Maybe other people want to advance their careers too. You can help each other by inspiring one another to continuously do better.
7. Reward yourself.
Reward yourself when you’ve completed a goal, or a course, or when you’ve worked hard all week studying and you didn’t procrastinate. Treat yourself with things you love and enjoy, like going out for dinner or a movie or a game of bowling or tennis!
8. Learn to say no.
You have to say no to things that will take you away from your end goal. If you start to see obstacles you may have taken your eyes off the goal. Say no to things that steal your time. Your time is precious, so try not to waste it.
9. Practice extreme self- care.
Good health is essential to feeling positive about yourself and your goals. You need the energy to complete projects. Eat healthily, exercise daily and always get a good night’s sleep.
Finding Happiness No Matter Where You Are
You may be unhappy in your current situation and that may be why you’re looking to be inspired while expanding your opportunities with career growth. But what if you decided to be happy anyway?
You can find happiness no matter where you are. You can find something to be grateful for daily whether it’s your surroundings, or in your career or home.
Even if your situation isn’t ideal, try to find something to be thankful on your journey.
Yes, we all complain about something. Like having to wake up too early, or you’re not getting paid enough or you’re in a job you hate. But you may be there for a reason. And until things change, it’s best to make the most of every situation and find happiness in that situation.
Related: Setting Yourself up for Success
Have Gratitude for Your Current Situation
Your current situation is what’s leading to search out career growth. But it’s important to be happy in the situation you are in now too. You can increase your happiness by practicing gratitude. The more positive you feel, the more positive things happen to you.
In your career, you may be thinking that making $10,000 more would make you happy. Or if you got a promotion you’d be happier. We always look at these future things thinking our lives will be so much better.
But why not cultivate gratitude and be happy now and in the present. You have to work at your job right now until you change it with new courses or find a more challenging job. So until that happens be happy now.
Be grateful for the current situation you’re in. Everyone has good or bad days. But if you’re grateful for where you’re at, you’ll start to be thankful that it has inspired you to move forward.
Here’s 5 Things To Be Grateful For
- You have a job. Just think how you’d feel if you didn’t have a job. Even if you don’t love your job you have something to go to every day where you can set goals and be challenged.
- You’re being paid. That’s much better than not having a job and not making money. Be thankful for the things you can buy and don’t dwell on the things you can’t buy.
- You are interacting with people every day. An important part of happiness is building relationships and community. Not the social media kind either. You need real people daily.
- You have at least one perk/advantage others may not have. Maybe your boss gives a good maternity leave. Maybe they give you every 3rd Friday off. If you work at a restaurant you probably get free meals and lots of tips. There’s something in every job that adds something positive to your life.
- Contrast creates beauty and is good. For example, summer is so good because you’ve just gone through a harsh winter. Or would Christmas be so special if it was every day? Or traveling is fun in contrast to staying at home all the time. These are great things to be grateful for right now. I’m sure you can think of more!
Remember it’s feelings that will keep you motivated to complete your course and stick to your goals. Practice these tips to help you stay inspired to continue your career growth strategies.
Practicing gratitude will always keep you feeling positive, so when you’re down and wanting to give up, take a 5 minute break and start listing all the things that make you happy and you’re thankful for. Follow these tips to help you with motivation and happiness for career growth.
