Simple Ideas to Regain Motivation for Working

motivation at work

What really the workplace motivation is? Often described as a combination of external and internal factors keeping the employees engaged in their professional activity, motivation is seen as the key element of reaching happiness at work and achieving professional goals. As long as we feel motivated at work, we feel productive, appreciated and stress-free. Nevertheless, motivation isn’t stable, and under specific circumstances we can face loss of motivation, varying from slight unwillingness to do everyday tasks to a heavy frustration. The latter, if not managed timely, can lead to professional burnout and can even urge you to pursue a change of career (want to know the main reasons why people quit jobs? See here: https://resumeperk.com/blog/15-common-reasons-why-people-quit-jobs ).

There is a number of productive ways to regain the motivation and passion to work, though. The authors of business professional resume explain the reasons of decreasing motivation and the simple steps you can take to bring your professional drive back.

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Reasons why we lose motivation

Too much hard work
There’s a common misconception that still exists for some reason: if you want to succeed, hard work is essential. Nevertheless, after days and weeks of exhausting, grueling work all you can expect is a professional burnout, destroyed motivation and even health issues.
In today’s business world, there’s a new concept of working smart, not hard. Productive stress is okay, but only as long as you can handle the stress and stay motivated. Being a workaholic isn’t effective neither for your health and family not for your career. To understand the key differences between workaholic and hard worker, see here: https://resumeperk.com/blog/main-differences-between-workaholic-and-hard-worker .
Being overwhelmed by tasks
Heavy workload doesn’t always lead to overwhelm. However, when the tasks appear faster than you can prioritize them, or you can’t effectively break them into easy-to-do, manageable chunks, you can face this feeling of helplessness and frustration. Needless to say that the excess of tasks – especially if you don’t have an idea how to manage them – makes us demotivated to continue working.
Some experts assume that overwhelm can be dictated by feeling of helplessness that we became accustomed to early in childhood. If you have this feeling quite often, you might need some inner psychological work to identify the problem and regain the motivation.
If it’s writing your resume that you feel overwhelmed at, consider contacting professional resume writing company with good reputation. Our writers can make a online resume for you in no time.
Expecting results straightaway
It’s in our nature to expect to see the outcomes of what we do. Nevertheless, pursuing certain professional results may take weeks, months, and even years. Mastering the skill, getting a certification or launching the product take a plenty of time and effort before you will see the result. If you lack patience, you may experience drop of motivation as you’ll get seemingly no results from all effort you put in.
By the way, patience is one of the traits successful people have. To learn more about habits of successful people, read here: https://resumeperk.com/blog/professional-executive-resumes-habits-of-successful-people
Focusing on mistakes and weaknesses
The intrinsic motivation is closely connected with psychology. In particular, those of us who tend to focus on our mistakes, weaknesses and shortcomings have lower levels of motivation than those who see things on the bright side. These habits lower our confidence and slow down our willingness to grow professionally and progress our career.
Everyone makes mistakes along the professional path, and everyone has their weak points. Accepting them and learning from them in the future is crucial not only for keeping your motivation high, but for overall emotional well-being as well.
Daydream about achieving huge success
When starting a career, many of us daydream about achieving professional heights. For instance, when studying finance, you can imagine yourself as a famous Wall Street trader or a CFO of a well-known corporation. Daydreaming isn’t any harm, but only as long as you keep your current goals in focus. However, if you don’t work hard on achieving closer, achievable goals, every minor mistake will put you down and demotivate you.
Insecurity at work
Job insecurity embraces a number of popular reasons of motivation drop. Firstly, you can feel insecure because you lack career vision and objectives and you will lack motivation because you aren’t totally sure why you do what you do. In this case, proper career planning can help – learn the tips for planning your career here: https://resumeperk.com/blog/planning-a-future-career-are-you-for-or-against Secondly, insecurity may come from lack of organizational stability – for instance, if there are resignations in your company and you aren’t sure you’ll still be working here in a month from now. And thirdly, lack of recognition can evoke the feeling that you are undervalued. All of the above reasons have similar consequence: motivation is destroyed and we can’t push ourselves to continue working.
No professional growth opportunities
One of the key factors contributing to workplace motivation is the ongoing learning and development. If your company doesn’t offer any opportunities for training, attending events in your field and ways to get a promotion, it goes without saying that you will feel bored and stagnated, which will drop the motivation eventually.
All career experts agree that it isn’t worth it to stay in a dead-end job. If you found yourself in the organization that gives you no more room for growth, it’s time to get your resume updated and search for openings out there.
Poor workplace relationships
Relationships at work influence our levels of motivation either. If you don’t get see eye to eye with your boss or even have conflicts, you won’t be motivated to do your job well. The same is with relationships with coworkers. Occasional debates and healthy competition are normal and even helpful; however, serious conflicts or misunderstandings, if happen regularly, can destroy a productive atmosphere in the department.

Regardless of the reason why your motivation levels are down, there’s good news. Motivation can be regained, and you can reach new heights of productivity if you get serious about re-inspiring yourself.

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How to restore lost motivation

Remind yourself why you have started
You didn’t happen to be in this role for occasion. Probably, you have taken this job so as to achieve some long-term professional goals, i.e. gain skills or experience, meet the influential people or simply to support your family. When you are no longer motivated to continue working, it’s time to remind yourself what you are doing this for. It’s easy just to give things up and let it slide; however, you will miss on something more important in the long run. Keeping your big goal in focus will help you to stay on track in tough times.
If it’s just lack of energy and inspiration that you experience, you’ll find some helpful inspirational advice here: https://resumeperk.com/blog/10-ways-to-find-lost-desire-and-inspiration
Align your goals with the organizational objectives
Feel lack of motivation for completing your routine tasks? Then, it probably isn’t clear for you how what you do now can help you get closer to your long-term goals. To return the sense of meaning, you need to connect your daily activities with the global personal goals. For instance, processing payables and receivables is dull; however, it’s one of the first steps to a financial department manager’s role. Managing rude clients is unpleasant; still, it’s essential if you want to start your own business in the future.
If you feel that your current job has little to do with your long-term goals, maybe, it’s time to update your resume at an affordable fee and start looking for better fitting roles.
Learn new skills
Learning is an effective stagnation killer because it helps your brain work at full speed and helps you look differently at the old, mundane problems. So, if your work is totally unmotivated right now yet you’re not ready to make a radical decision in your career, it’s a good idea to slow down and devote your time to advancing new skills. Ask for training opportunities if your company offers them; if no, multiple online courses are always at your disposal in the smartphone (for instance, writers can take advantage of writing apps). Pay attention to soft skills – they are crucial for climbing up the career ladder.
Dare to take action
Do you feel that your career is stuck? Have you faced the situation when the old methods don’t work any longer and it looks like you’re not moving anywhere? A case like this can frustrate anyone, and it’s hard to take action knowing that it’s not taking you anywhere.
Nevertheless, as they say, it’s insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If your motivation is down for a long time and you feel stagnated, there are two possible solutions. First, you can consider making a big change to your current work routine. It can be done by switching department or even role within your current organization, adopting a hard-working approach, or asking the management to get training – whichever fits into your career plan better. Second, you can quit your job. It takes decisiveness and courage to break your routine this way, but it’s necessary if you feel it’s right. Maybe, you don’t live your true passion right now; learn here how to pursue your true career passion: https://resumeperk.com/blog/discover-your-true-calling-tips-from-resume-services-online
Develop positive approach to unenjoyable tasks
Everyone has a plenty of unpleasant tasks to complete in their schedule. However, most of us think and imagine these tasks in a wrong way, which models our incorrect attitude to them. For instance, you need to negotiate with a really difficult client and you imagine a tough negotiating process, lots of objections and your stress. Try to approach this differently in your head. Imagine a positive result of this negotiation, i.e. contract signed or goods purchased. This change in using your imagination will set you positively for completing an unpleasant task faster and more successfully. (If it is resume writing that dreads you, the expert resume writers of our company know how to help you).
A positive approach to work is a powerful source of motivation in general. When you think of yourself as of the successful, highly motivated and respected individual, you internalize your belief and are likely to act this way over and over again. Focus on the task you can do and imagine the positive outcome, and this will reflect on your motivation and the success of your work in general.
Surround yourself with positive individuals
Having adopted a positive mindset, it’s hard to continue keeping up with groaning and moaning of negative coworkers. And you don’t have to. Try your best to team up with motivated and positive individuals. By encouraging each other, you’ll achieve much better results as a team. Even if the things go wrong, an ongoing support will help you regain the motivation.
The importance of surroundings on our motivation is hard to overestimate. So, if you have people of this kind working in your company, connect with them – good relationships at the workplace will create a great working environment you’ll really enjoy.
Go for an interview
For many of us, attending interviews is the radical step which means that you’re serious about changing your job. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Interviewing is a great way to access your skills, knowledge, experience and their value on the job market. It enhances your communication skills and expands your professional network. Moreover, it helps you hone the interviewing skills you’ll need when you’re ready to look for a new job (don’t forget to finish the interview with smart and memorable interview questions).
If you were invited for online interview, don’t neglect it as well. Use this chance to explore the differences of personal versus online interview.
Interviewing is also a great method to make a step outside of your comfort zone. It breaks your routine and helps you enhance motivation to keep moving. A good resume can do that as well – contact our resume writers to find out how we can help you.
Delegate responsibilities
If you are in the management role, you probably have faced the situation when you have to keep everything under your control. Nevertheless, perfectionism and unwillingness to delegate are the fastest ways to professional burnout and destroyed motivation.
Are you a keen leader who is focused on building stellar career and achieve exemplary professional results? Then, you probably feel frustrated about delegating task to some employee who is likely to make more mistakes. However, by doing so, you’ll have enough time for completing forms and handling administrative tasks . Someone who was assigned the task might not disappoint you but also impress with the job done well. Delegation is necessary also when you work with a friend or your spouse – and it will not spoil your relationships.
Overcome catastrophe motivation issues
Are you one of those personalities who is deadline-driven and can function productively only under the threat of poor feedback or being fired? You probably call this “procrastination” and look up for procrastination cures online. This might be the problem that is called ‘catastrophe motivation’ and requires deeper internal work.
If you externalize your motivation, you adopt the childish approach to work and life in general accepting the idea that someone from outside controls what you have to do. On the contrary, you need to develop self-respect and responsibility that is enough to start acting when you have to act. As soon as you do so, you’ll deprive yourself from the idea that it’s the world that pushes you into action.

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Utilize positive visualization
If you’ve made a decision to do something totally new to you, such as adopting a new habit, enrolling in the course or finding a new job, it’s hard to find motivation for the very first steps. In this case, you can take advantage of the positive visualization.
How to do this? Imagine where you will be in two or five years from now if you continue doing what you do. Ask yourself, “If I continue preparing for international certification, what will my career look like?” “If I manage to get in my dream company, how will my life change?” Focus on the positive side of things. If you manage to visualize the positive long-term outcomes of your minor today’s actions, you’ll find it much easier to stay on track.
If it’s the workplace criticism that keeps you down, learn how to react to criticism properly and use it to your advantage.
Take care of your body
Sometimes key to poor motivation at work is pretty obvious and it lies at the roots of our busy life. When you work extra hours (or have two jobs), it’s quite easy to forget about your physical needs such as having meals on time, drinking water, exercising, etc. Neglecting daily routines that are meant to keep our body healthy and productive day after day leads to low energy levels and results to instant drop of motivation.
The solution is simple as well: healthy nutrition and drinking enough water can be enough to restore energy levels and motivation as follows.
Take some time off work
In our turbulent society with overworks and striving for success, we are all subjected to prolonged stress. This means that stress accumulates within your body and mind – and you can even not realize it and be sure that everything is going quite well. Nevertheless, the stress isn’t going anywhere and leads to illnesses and mental breakdowns in the long run.
To handle this stress, taking regular time off is essential. Give yourself one day at the weekend in which the work wouldn’t bother you at all, and take regular vacations. It’s great if you manage to travel, try new sports and activities or simply spend a week by the beach. Nevertheless, if such opportunities are unavailable for you, plan a one day retreat that will give your body rest and your mind to be free from daily affairs. Quality rest can really work wonders on your motivation.
If you are up to your ears in work, learn how to get away from the work routine right in the middle of a busy week.
Use gamification approach to motivation
Gamification approach implies the use of the same psychological principles which are used in videogames, i.e. the activation of human reward centers. Multiple neuroscience studies prove that gamification is extremely effective at the workplace as well, as it allows transforming dull to-do lists and routine tasks into a challenging quest that can keep you engaged and motivated day to day.
For instance, coffee shops utilize this principle with their loyalty card allowing you getting every 7th drink for free. This simple trick makes you drink more coffee to get a desired free drink.
Ideally, gamification concept should be used by management companywide, with systems of rewards and bages clearly defined and the element of competition involved. However, you can develop the system of tasks and rewards on your own and stick to it. This will be especially helpful for freelancers who typically need to take extra effort to keep their day organized.

The bottom line

When the motivation disappears, your professional world stagnates. It’s nearly impossible to achieve results, advance your career and even contribute as you usually do when you lack this inner drive. Nevertheless, remember that this isn’t forever and lost motivation can easily be restored if you use the right cure. Don’t mess lack of motivation with career crisis and don’t act reckless; it’s risky to make serious decisions when you’re down or unmotivated. Use one of the above methods (or combine) which appeals to you, and once the motivation is regained, you’ll feel full of energy to continue your current career path or switch to another one.

How can a resume writing service help you with motivation?

Are you too busy to write or rewrite your resume to apply for jobs? Or maybe, you lack motivation to learn how to make your resume catchy, modern and keyword-rich? In this case, a proofreading resume company can come to rescue.

Once you place an order, we will match you to a highly skilled resume writer who is adept at your industry. Your resume will be polished and improved until you’re 100% happy and satisfied with it. Moreover, it won’t cost you a bomb – learn more about our pricing policy and discounts. Your new professional resume will relieve you from stress of writing and motivate you for an effective job-hunting.

Have you ever experienced loss of motivation at work? Which methods did you use to regain motivation and energy?

Lost motivation: How to avoid this state?

A recent study shows that it is practically impossible to remain constantly uplifting at work. Yet you can always stay motivated. The only thing is to follow particular rules. Of course, it is easier to prevent discouragement than to handle this issue afterward.

Stay focused on important moments

Little things often spoil the mood. For instance, a small conflict with co-workers disappoints a lot. Business owners are often feeling lost due to unexpectedly low financial parameters. Still, such issues are usually temporary. Remember that difficult situations finally end, and you will keep moving in the right direction. And your lifework is getting even better after such challenges. Do not forget about strategic goal setting. Sometimes you have to sacrifice smaller goals for bigger aims.

Learn to solve conflicts constructively

A favorable psychological background can create a positive atmosphere, where you and your colleagues are consistently motivated. We are all social creatures, and we want good communication with each other. Even introverts need it. Whether it is an internal conflict or an external issue for your group, do not ignore it. Honest conversation and active discussions will help you solve issues promptly.

Preserve your mental energy

You have to maintain the spirit of objectivity and a stable mind. If you are feeling lost, try to self-reflect or turn to psychologists. Do not let challenging situations ruin your mentality. You have to stay smart and make wise decisions. Self-care is a must. Listen to your feelings and react properly. Recent research shows that one can even extremely lose weight because of issues with mental state.

Choose an inspiring profession

Realize what makes you happy. The answer is not always about money. You might be a person who needs creativity or wants to help people. In this case, your end goal cannot be about earning a particular sum of money. So connect your life with something you are passionate about. Sometimes a good salary is not the only reward that you need. Public recognition or belonging to an awesome project can be in the first place of your needs. Focusing on your personal priorities will help you succeed in life and avoid professional burnout.

Develop the culture of honest teamwork

Employees often inspire each other. Try to cooperate with true professionals and follow their example. Thus, you will gain confidence in what you do, as well as get positive energy and encouragement.

Some extra hints to increase work motivation

Here are some more pieces of advice for those who are lacking motivation from time to time.

Remember that you are responsible for your life

“How to motivate yourself and increase productivity?” — “Do nothing and stay in that low point of your life.” It is an old joke, and its last phrase contained some more rude words. Of course, we could not mention them here; still, the sense is the same.

Just realize that motivation is a matter of your responsible attitude to life. It does not have to depend on the momentary mood or a single moment.

Don't be so hard on yourself

The aspiration to progress and great achievements is commendable. But do not overdo it. Take your time and take a break when necessary. Move forward at your own pace, do not strive to break too high records. Life is rather a marathon than a sprint. Thus, there is no need to increase drive speed rapidly. The sense is to find a balance between having fun and reaching the necessary goals.

A lack of motivation and professional burnout can be evidence of your wrong choice. If all the above recommendations do not help you, maybe it’s time for crucial changes in your life. Think about a new job or position, and our experts will compose the best career documents for you. Learn more from our support agents, — please, contact us on the chat!

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