The longer you’ve been in the same job, the more you need to motivate yourself. This is because the human mind adjusts to challenges. When you first started working at a certain job, it was probably more difficult for you than it is now. As time went by, you tried out various things and figured out what worked for you. And by this time, that’s what you do–you just keep doing the things that work for you. So your job becomes easier.
Sameness Leads to Boredom and Worry
Although settling into a routine makes your job easier, you also become just a little bit bored. Your mind wanders while you’re working. You find yourself thinking of everything else in your life, both personal and professional. And sometimes, you might even end up ruminating more and getting anxious and worried. This is all because your mind is not occupied. And it’s not occupied because it’s not getting enough of a challenge.
Injecting Newness into Work Tasks
The best way to motivate yourself is to do something new–something that will keep your mind occupied. But how do you go about doing this? How do you inject newness into the same old tasks? Well, you can start out small. Try doing small new things.
- Wear something just a little bit different to work–not something inappropriate, just different.
- Stop to speak to one of your co-workers whom you may not have chatted with before.
- Go somewhere different for lunch.
- If you’re a manager and you usually email your instructions to your employees, call them and give them instructions instead. Or better still, walk over to their desks.
- If you usually ask your marketing team to write you a report, ask them for a presentation instead.
Novelty, Creativity and Motivation
These are all little things but creativity is in the little things. All great things were accomplished by breaking them up into little things and also by trying something different. Not only will this method keep you motivated in the long term, it will also help you to be more creative and accomplish more than before.
