Career Motivation – Do You Have It? (Part 1)

There is almost nothing as frustrating as going to work day after day to a job that you have very little motivation to accomplish. So many people take a job just for the sake of having a job, while others over time just lose the love they seemed to first have. Then, there are the greatest majority of people in between, who do their job, with somewhat of indifference in their attitude. They work because they have to, but that doesn’t mean they have to enjoy it, does it?

To determine if you have that real motivation or not, here are a few quick questions to consider:

• Do you truly enjoy the job you are doing?
• Do you look forward to going to work each day?
• Does the time at work seem to fly by?
• Do you feel like you are an asset and effective contributor at work?
• Do you feel as though you are growing and developing as a whole person?

If you feel the overall answer is “no” to the majority of these type questions, then you probably need to take a hard look at ways to motivate your career.  You may have bad days where you’d feel the answer is “no” to these questions, but think about the overall feeling you have in general about the work you do. Also, you may need to take a look at things outside of work that could be affecting life in general, and therefore bleeding over into your work attitudes. Some general events that may be leading to you having lower than desired motivation could be:

• Not enjoying what you are doing
• Feeling underappreciated or not receiving any recognition from management
• Receiving no advice, direction/guidance, or positive feedback
• No clear goals
• Being the better candidate, but being passed over for advancement
• Less than desirable work environment
• Concern over compensation and benefit issues
• No opportunities for career growth or development

Another possibility is that you have experienced something, whether at work or in regular private life, that has caused a general lack of motivation in many areas of life. Take a hard look at yourself; see if you can pinpoint a time or event that may be a root to the issue. Once you can identify a potential issue, then you can begin to take steps to eliminate the undesirable issues it causes, and restore motivation.

What you think and feel can have a major impact on what you do, and over time can really drag down the motivation level if not addressed.  It can be a vicious circle of having a slightly lower motivation, which then produces less than desirable affects at work, which stifles the creativity and motivation, and brings things to an even lower level of motivation.

Do you desire to fix this circle of low motivation? In part two we will look at some ways to begin restoring the motivation and getting you back on track for a healthy and productive career with growth and development.