STAYING MOTIVATED..
It's hard isn't it trying to stay motivated all of the time. We all do stuff that drives us and motivates us to achieve some sort of result. But even the most motivated of us occasionally experience a down turn and need a boost to regain our normal motivational levels. When I was studying for my CIPD, motivation was brought up with almost everything, and was linked to so many of my assignments and exams. Yet towards the end of my studying and after a couple of resits, I really had lost the will to live (I love saying that), 4 years of education after leaving it many years really sucked the life out me. The final year included five assignments (3000 words), five exams, 10,000 word dissertation and personal log to keep up to date, all in a space of nine months and all overlapping. I got very confused :-/ I was shattered and tearful, I just wanted to come home and relax rather than pick up a book and study after a day's work. Me and my friend Tini were getting very moody and snappy towards the end, she lost more motivation than I did, so I was having to pick both of us up...we laugh about now, but the point is we kept at it, motivated to see the end result and qualify to better our career and move forward...So when I graduated, I grabbed my certificate and ran a mile and did not look back.
So that's one of my example's of personal motivation, but what about motivation at work..there are always things going on that thrive us to work harder and be driven to do well. We spend alot of time at work, so what motivates us to drag ourselves out of our warm pit holes (especially in the winter) to get our arses to work? Well..money of course. That has to be the main if not one of the three most motivational factors to work. I can count on one hand the people I have met who are driven by other factors to work besides money. However having said that, they had already done the hard work and work a few hours a day just to keep their mind stimulated and be around people. Of course there are mummies too who have the need to get back into the work environment rather than just changing nappies...
Money is one of my top few, I remember one of my very old bosses saying to me ' you have to look after your job to look after your family' well I think that's true.. isn't it? Work hard, earn good money = nice holidays, eating out and other lovely fluffy things..oh and pay the mortgage too!! lol...that stuff don't come for free. I'm also motivated by seeing something through from start to finish, like a good project or a particular case which can take time and patience. I love being around people, the more I meet the better. The rest of the stuff are all things like recognition, good communication, openness and transparency. And I tell you what de-motivates me too, I'll say three...maybe four as it could be a long list...laziness, blamers who pass the buck (I work in HR, believe me I see alot of that) people who talk the talk but never actually deliver and poor leadership.
There so many models that are used to describe motivation, but have look at this one. Some of you may be aware of the Maslow hierarchy of needs theory, a very old one from 1943. It is simple model that states only after the basic needs are satisfied are we satisfied to seek the higher needs. I quite like this model, seen it enough times when I was studying!!
So what motivates you, personally, professionally and what de-motivates you? I'd love see if you are similar or different from me..I've shared with you..now come and chat moi :-)
asha treacy
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Hello massie,
very well written and very interesting topic. keep up the good work love sanjay xx
Fantastic work asha basha ,amazing--well done--
Take care
Si
Hi another good blog well done. Work keeps me motivated if i start something i like to see it through n not pass the buck which is poor laziness. The kids also keep me motivated work n family keep me going. Sometimes i feel drained after doing so much but hey wat can we do.....Love u KK xxxxxxx
Great blog again Asha… I’ll start with the de-motivators so this comment ends on a good note at least :-)
I partly agree with what you said about “you have to look after your job to look after your family” but there’s give and take with everything, and if your job doesn’t look after you where’s the incentive to look after your job in the first place :-) From a pay point of view, yeh they look after you because if you do bad work, your company may loose business and you get no money but there are other things they can do to help motivate you, money isn’t always everything… one example (beside perks) would be training to help further your job knowledge and career. In my case you know maybe how much overtime I’m currently doing, I get the extra mula which is good (nice motivator :-)), but here are the de-motivators that go with it… no training, lack of recognition, and poor communication… just the main ones for me, there are other small niggling ones…
Saying that though I can get myself motivated again without much trouble (though has been getting harder)… mainly it is just wanting to see a task through, like you n Kanta I don’t like leaving anything unfinished (or passing the buck because I found it too hard, i love a challenge) so want to get it all done and see the end result. There’s also the problem solving aspect I really like… finding an issue, analysing it and determining the best way to fix it. Money always helps as you’ve mentioned but the other big one has to be the people you work with… the guys I work around definitely make it a great place to work, all around the same age so have plenty in common…
Hi Krunal....That's a really good point about job incentive, alarm bells should be going off there if it get's to that..
It's always good if you get some recognition if you go over and above your normal hours and duties to help even if you do get paid for it. I used go in early and stay late, did not get paid the extra overtime, but felt passionate to see things through and there was very little acknowledgement of that and no thank you either. I soon wised up...
People are important, you spend enough time with them at work. I've met some wonderful/interesting people over the years, some who have become very close friends...I've also met some very weird ones too but that's another story.... lol :-)
My job as a manager is to get things done through my employees. To do this i need to be able to motivate my employees, But that's easier said than done!
There is an old saying 'you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink, the horse will drink if its thristy', so with people they will do what they want, to do, or otherwise motivated to do.
Motivation is, in effect, inducing others in a specific way towards goals stated by the movitator.
I personally think Motivation is strange, When you have it, Life seems great and the world is your oyster, When you are unmotivated, However, even the simplest of tasks can be a struggle to complete !!
I also belive self motivation comes from believing you deserve great things in life and that you will get them if you word hard.
Motivation, plays a huge role in my workplace as i need to be the Motivator daily.
My thoughts other than the normal MONEY.
Another excellent Blog Asha, Keep them coming but still waiting for that next best seller like Harry Potter !!! x
Thank you Tin Tin..
It must be tough having stay motivated and be the motivator for your employees too. What happen's if one day you are not as motivated (we all have those days) does that rub off on your employees or do they in return try to moitvate you?? Can always work both ways too..
I believe peeps are def motivated if they have a good leader, taking them forward, developing and training, encouraging them to do there best and helping them learn from constructive criticism..
Poor leadership leads back to that horsey drinking water..it ain't going to happen :-)
Thanks xx
Well done on a good blog. Motivation is always such a varied topic. What will motivate one person, won't necessarily motivate another.
Reading about how we struggled towards the end on that course, made me remember some memoried :) I am now glad we saw it through and am very grateful to you for helping me see the light at the end of the tunnel! The motivation was to have the qualification which would in turn help us with our careers.
Motivation at work is definitely money, but as the years have gone by this is less and less of a motivator for me at work. It is becoming more important to have a good working environment and great colleagues who I trust and value. There is nothing worse than being paid loads of money to do a job which you do not enjoy getting up for in the morning and working with colleagues you cannot stand to be near. Especially when you consider the amount of time we spend at work. So much for work life balance. Which leads to another potential motivator for people - ensure their job allows them to have a good work-life balance so that they can enjoy life with the money they have earned. No point earning all that money and having hardly any time to do anything you enjoy with it.
Within my sector at work, which is the care industry, people do not get paid very much. It is the job satisfaction and passion people have for the work they do that gets them through. And as we all get older and end up relying on people like that, I hope there are more people like that out there!
Good old motivation - where would we be without it!!!
It is true Tini and thanks for taking the time to comment birdie..but who's going to get out of bed for nothing? and I think money is the main instigator here...
You do spend alot of time with peeps at work, so getting on with them does help. If you are inspired by a good bunch of people, get on well and work together it does make life alot easier.. ;-)