BIG Motivation helps us achieve BIGGER Goals

Motivation contributes to a person’s desire to stay committed or interested in a position, goal or subject. To excel in our professions, we will need the motivation to continually pursue our career objectives, e.g. I may want to get promoted to a higher position of responsibility in my organization. Having a specific goal in mind will only motivate me to deliver top-level performance. This also applies when I’m studying to acquire a specialized skill that will enhance my earning power.

Motivation can be intrinsic (from within) or extrinsic (from outside ourselves). Several factors can contribute to our motivation levels, and they can affect our productivity, dedication and commitment to work and success. Understanding the different motivations can help us apply valuable lessons to our personal and professional lives. In this article, we will discuss the different types of motivation as how to use them in our careers.

Motivation @Workplace

Motivation is essential to staying satisfied with our work. Without it, we risk becoming disengaged, like 70% of the employees surveyed by Gallup. We’ll merely go through the motions, never fully invested.

This can have many harmful effects long-term:

• Feel more tired and sluggish
• Succumb to stress more easily
• Risk falling into spirals of negativity
• Increase chances of burning out
• Well-being will worsen
• Dissatisfaction will come home
• Sense of purpose is lost

Relationship between Goals and Motivation

Goals always enhance our motivation, but we need the motivation to take steps toward our goals. This is a classic chicken-and-egg situation. It’s hard to know which comes first. Here’s the thing: neither of them does. Setting a goal might motivate us, but we might feel motivated to set a goal. And failing to achieve a goal has been proven to hinder our motivation and self-esteem. Setting and achieving realistic goals is crucial to keeping our brains motivated and focused.

Goal-setting Improves Motivation

Goals improve our motivation by giving us a tangible outcome for our work. Every time we complete one, we’ll feel a sense of accomplishment, motivating us to keep going. The trick is to structure our goals appropriately.

Here’s how to use goal setting to improve our motivation:

1. Set SMART Goals

If we’ve done our reading about goal-setting, we’ve probably already heard about the ‘SMART’ method. This acronym stands for goals that are:

1. Specific: What are we trying to accomplish? What actions shall we take?
2. Measurable: How shall we know we succeeded?
3. Attainable: Can you complete the goal with your current skills and resources?
4. Realistic: Does this goal align with our wider purpose and values?
5. Time-bound: What is our deadline?

Both our professional and personal goals should follow this method. It will help us set realistic expectations for what we can achieve, saving us from unnecessary disappointment and discouragement if we miss our mark. And while failure is a great teacher, nothing kills motivation faster than feeling like we failed.

2. Baby Steps Help

Our list of milestones should resemble a trail of breadcrumbs. Each one inches us toward our bigger goal. It’s important to plan small and easy first steps. Achieving them will give us immediate sense of progress, thus boosting our motivation to keep us going.

This should always be one of the initial and keys lessons that we learn in life. Always remember that going slow and steady wins the race and going step by step always helps and life doesn’t believe in shortcuts and that’s how we can attain sustainable progress in life.

3. Management by Measurement

As they say in English: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Let’s have a plan to measure goals and know what we need to do to accomplish them. If we plan to get a 50% raise in our sales by the end of the year, e.g., we can check our totals every week and then every month to ensure we’re making incremental progress. Seeing that we’ve made positive efforts toward our goals can result in even more determination.

Once we get into the flow of setting and achieving goals, it’s easy to lose track of how far we’ve come. We can setup. This will keep you motivated as you progress. A visual representation like a checklist o works well.

4. Self-Reward

Positive reinforcements are one of the most effective motivating factors. We can reward ourselves for achieving our goal or for completing milestones along the way e.g., one could treat him/herself on achieving a major milestone and this act is called “celebration with yourself”.

Achieving our goals is hard work. If they’re aligned with our values and purpose, We’re probably intrinsically motivated to keep going. But, on those tough days, it’s important to add some spice to give you energy. Rewarding ourselves makes a tough job a bit sweeter.

5. Share your goals

One of the better ways to motivate oneself is to tell someone close about the professional or personal plans in making. This person should ideally be a close family member or a dear friend. Making our goals known to others will make us more determined because we start feeling accountable.

Also remember, responsibility comes with accountability. In this case, since more than one persons knows about the goals or plans, one needs to ensure that it is attained in a given timeframe to avoid unnecessary embarrassment.

Last Word

Big goals are scary to many of us. They cut right to the “A” in the S.M.A.R.T. scheme, that is, we may think that we can’t attain them. We look at a big goal, and then we look back at ourselves, asking ourselves where we are right now, and we think “what is the point of setting a goal like that, I can never attain it.” The reality is that in many cases we don’t know what we can achieve until we try. We don’t know our limits until we test them.

So, it’s very common for people to turn their attention to setting new goals and plans to improve their life. Personally, I advocate the “continual goal setting” method, so that whenever an old goal is completed, we have already started a series of new ones. However, if we are using the start of the new year as a measuring point to kickstart our life or business and make life more fulfilling, that is fantastic.

About the Author

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.

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