What is it that you really want?
Consultants struggling to stay motivated are often either not clear enough about what they really want to achieve or where they want to go, or they’ve assumed that in order to be successful they must replicate the motivations of other successful consultants or managers.
Often consultants ‘plateau’ and are no longer motivated because what actually drove them to achieve a goal no longer exists once they get there.
Motivation only exists if there is an inner desire to accomplish a goal or participate in an endeavour. And unless you have a destination you’re trying to reach and totally own, the motivation is always short lived. This can result in occasional and infrequent bursts of energy and enthusiasm only when you’re having a good day!
To understand what truly motivates you, look at what really matters to you and what you consider to be important in the future. Have you thought about creating a Personal Mission Statement? Questions that uncover this include:
What is it that you really want?
What is it you’d most like to accomplish?
Why do you want it?
What does it mean to you?
What do you enjoy most about your work?
What do you stand for?
What gets you out of bed in the morning?!
True motivation requires really getting in touch with what feels ‘right’ to you, and what puts ‘wind in your sail’.
Whatever it is for you, it will be real, owned motivation. And ultimately it will produce more revenue for both you and your business!
Next, a vision statement propels your mission statement into action, and looks at how you can achieve this.
Take some time out to visualise a specific point of time two years from now and imagine you’ve had a very successful couple of years both professionally and personally. Try and project yourself to that point and think about what your life looks like.
- What’s happening in your business?
- What’s happening in your personal life?
- How has your life changed?
- What’s different about the way you operate at work?
- How are you celebrating successes today?
- What did you most enjoy about the journey?
- What are some of the SPECIFIC things you did to get where you are today?
Once you’ve identified with, or visualised, your success, the next step is to road map the journey and support it with some effective realistic goals in order to break it down in to digestible daily steps:
— Are you going to have a positive association with what you need to do?
— Can you be consistent?
Change the timeframes if you feel your success is not possible in the given amount of time.
Remember: it’s important to feel progress and recognise you’re on a journey to achieve success! Make sure you celebrate success on the way. Maintaining motivation is about recognising and celebrating progress.
Once you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve you’ll need to look at the next destination.
To help you through the difficult times carry your vision and goals around with you, or keep them somewhere you can regularly remind yourself of what you’re trying to achieve.
Andy Partridge
Training and coaching for the recruitment professional
