Whether it’s wanting to get that project done, make that phone call or even lose 10lbs, motivation is hard to harness. If they bottled it, you’d buy it and ensure you had some on hand anytime you had to deal with that nightmare customer or get away from that next episode on Netflix. We talk a lot about what motivates employees and they different types of motivation – but what if you want some tangible tips?
We’ve compiled the best we’ve found.

1. Wait to get inspired
There’s a reason Pinterest and Gary Vaynerchuk exist – motivation. If you need a metaphorical boot, take inspiration. This could be watching a workout video, even if you’re just sat in your chair. It could be reading a biography of a business leader you admire. It could be speaking to someone who boosts you up, going to a conference, getting out of the office. Only you know what inspires you – whether writing to do lists gives you insane amounts of pleasure or piles on the pressure, or if you’re the kind of person who feels rebooted around people or on your own. Schedule in time to feel inspired – treat it like a fun quest to seek inspiration for motivation.

2. Don’t wait to get inspired
Another strategy is to follow Nike’s famous slogan and ‘Just Do It’. One thing. If your house is a complete bombsite, then start with just wiping the counters down. If you’ve signed up to a gnarly project, just start with formatting the document, or writing 100 words. Need to lose some excess weight? Just get up, right now and walk across the office. If it’s a phonecall – make a nice one first. Things tend to have a snowball effect – get one thing right and the rest will follow in due course-  before you know it you’re tidying out that drawer of cables at 2am.

3. Get organised
Some people love chaos but others find that a dirty environment = a dirty mind (and not the good kind.)
Swish around a few disinfectant wipes and put stuff in the bin. Tidy out your desktop folder that’s started to become a huge time sink. Delete old emails or just smash everything you haven’t touched in a month into an archive folder and use the search facility to dig it out later. It only takes a few minutes and can be really helpful.

4. Write down what you want to be
It can also be really helpful to write down your end goals somewhere, whether that’s coded on the top of a notepad so you don’t have to explain or on your bathroom mirror – this is a step down from a ‘positive affirmation’ but still quite effective in making sure you stick to your life plan. Yes, life plan. You might make a note of your salary of job title goal at the top of the page, or words that you would like to be remembered by when you eventually are no longer here.

What can you do today that embodies these values and gets you closer to what you want to achieve? These act as a great anchor to your behaviour – would someone hardworking, dedicated and an ‘elite performer’ sit watching videos of dogs wearing socks on YouTube, or would they be smashing the phones? Would someone who is ‘healthy, lean and full of energy’ be taking another Krispy Kreme out the box? You decide your own path, so make sure you’re giving yourself some discipline and living your life to the absolute maximum rather than blindly strolling through it.

 

5. Tell childlike you to pipe down
You’re tired. Your calves hurt. You don’t want to do the big project your MD has given you – it’s stupid. Your tech is slow and you don’t have any money and you have too much to do anyway and you just don’t know where to begin and you’re no good at sales and you’ll never win the incentive anyway – what’s the point?
Ever said anything like this? (If you do, you probably say it internally because you’ve cottoned on if you vocalised your internal monologue your colleagues or spouse would be rolling their eyes so hard they would be in danger of losing long term sight capabilities.) Pity parties are cute when you’re 7 and pouting in a party hat, but when you’ve got grown-up pants on you have to proceed with life and sometimes that is boring and drudgerous and not very Instagram worthy. Unfortunately,  it doesn’t really matter if you ‘fancy’ doing the housework, or losing the weight, or keeping your job or winning that incentive prize or staying married or going to the vets or even getting out of bed – you just need to get on with it. If your inner 7-year-old has sprung up, acknowledge it and, try and act like the grown up you are and get started with the one life we are guaranteed to be living.  You’ll feel better once you’ve got going.

 

 

BONUS TIP: Coffee and a biscuit
A final hurrah for coffee and a bit of sugar, which admittedly isn’t great if you’re on the Paleo diet, but does help give you a bit of a kick when you’re down – we could advocate Quinoa and a bowl of kale for nutritional brownie points, but there’s something to be said for the humble Bourbon biscuit and a nice latte.