6 Mistakes That Are Causing You To Lack Motivation At Work

It’s not an uncommon scenario is it; you work hard, give it your all, smash the results out of the park BUT THEN you feel yourself on a slippery slope to a place where you just can’t be bothered anymore. You’ve lost focus, get distracted easily and find excuses not to do the work, of course that’s if you’ve managed to get yourself to work and not called in sick in the first place.

It all leaves you feeling a little deflated, overwhelmed, lost and quite likely irritated by the smallest of things at work as well as at home. Not a great place to be but yet so many of us allow ourselves to get here.

The good news is that there are some very common mistakes I see people making that is contributing to the way they feel and I am here to share them with you to help you get out of this hole!

MISTAKE NUMBER 1: It’s been too long since you had a break

When was the last time you had a real break from work, a holiday where you weren’t still working or doing something that looks and feels a lot like ‘work’? Chances are it may have been too long and you are simply tired and even bored of your same old same old routines, and that’s normal. We can run ourselves into the ground trying to achieve, achieve, achieve for only so long before the exact opposite starts to happen!

Time to shake things up, break free from your ‘normal’ and get some respite. If you can’t take an actual holiday, consider taking a morning, or a few earlier finishes from work to do something that energises you and see how you go. And if you can’t do that, then at least set your boundaries in place so that your non-work time, is indeed that. Or even, consider changing up your work environment to get a new lease of life and energy, clean the space around you, re-position your desk to take in a new view. Do what you can to break the norm.

MISTAKE NUMBER 2: You’re not looking after yourself well enough

Check in with yourself on your diet, your sleep and your general movement and exercise. How is it looking?

By now I am sure you know what makes you feel good, what gives you energy versus what leaves you feeling depleted and craving more of the things you promised you would stop doing, and so do a little audit on yourself. And, make sure you are doing as much as you can of the things that serve you best, and pay particular attention to how you feel when you, let’s say, eat well versus when you don’t. Remember those feelings the next time you may reach for the sugar and ask yourself which choice you really want to make, based on how you really want to feel.

MISTAKE NUMBER 3: You’re trying to do too much

When you think about the To Do list that you’re working on right now, how does it feel to you? There is a high chance it feels confusing, overwhelming, causing you to feel anxious and like you’d rather walk away or bury your head in the sand and do nothing then you would contemplate tackling it. That’s a familiar feeling to many but what an ugly place to be.

So, how can we change this and make progress and regain some motivation to progress, if even a small bit?

Take a moment to consider what your biggest pain point, biggest headache or priority is right now and then consider your to do list. Find the tasks on that list that relate directly to that problem and move the rest to a separate (safe!) place for now. Ask yourself how you would feel if you could see progress on that big problem - relieved, free, clear headed, energised perhaps?

Then, consider what are the key tasks that you have complete control over that will see you progress on that biggest ‘headache causing goal’. If there are many tasks, prioritise them, what is the first best thing for you to do before anything else, and so on. And, if that task is still pretty big and overwhelming in itself - chunk it down into smaller bite size pieces and give yourself more than enough time to get them done. Overshooting how long it will take you will reduce your stress and ensure you can complete it. Remember how you said you would feel if you could get progress or complete the task - hold onto that feeling as you work toward attaining it.

Once you’ve cleared some head space and got your head out of the sand, you will likely find that the other tasks that you put in a safe place for later, naturally just happen as you’ve regained some momentum. But, if they don’t, then run the same process on the rest of the list until you’re done! And don’t be afraid to scrap tasks that are meaningless to you, if they are not important, yet are causing you stress, forget them and come back to them at a later date when you’re ready.

MISTAKE NUMBER 4: You’re not playing to your strengths

When you consider the work you do, and the tasks you have to deliver on, would it be fair to say that there are certain aspects that you prefer to do over and above other areas? I’ve no doubt this is true for everybody, so you are not alone. The truth is that there will likely always be aspects of our work that we have to do but yet we don’t enjoy or don’t feel as confident to do and we can manage that to a degree. But, if your balance is too far in the wrong direction and too much of your workload consists of things that you either don’t enjoy or you’re not as confident at doing then you will likely feel overwhelmed and lack the desire to keep going with everything.

Instead, note down your tasks and consider how much you enjoy or feel confident at doing each of them, and see where your balance is at. Then consider how you can find a way to do more of the things you enjoy, and / or, how you can improve your confidence or ability to do the other tasks.

Do you need to delegate or outsource more of those? Do you need to upskill yourself or ask for more training on those areas? Do you need to do those tasks at a certain time of day or week when your head space is most positive or productive? Do you need to have a conversation with your superiors about potentially changing the scope of your role to take on more of what you love in exchange for the areas you can’t stand? Is it time to assess your job entirely and find something that allows you to play better to your strengths?

MISTAKE NUMBER 5: You’re not reflecting on how far you have come

In the busy, fast paced, and ever changing world in which we all live today it can be really easy to be so focussed on what’s next or what we haven’t yet done or achieved that we forget exactly how much we have accomplished and how far we have come. We forget to take a moment to appreciate our progress, celebrate our wins or even see the wins in the first place. And all of that can lead us to a place where we eventually lack motivation to keep going because we only see the gaps, we only see how far away the end goal still is, which leaves us disheartened.

And so, stop for a moment.

Take the time to look back and remember where you started, what mini-goals you may have achieved along the way so far, what you have learned, how you have grown, who you have become and consider how you felt then, versus how you feel now as a result of all of that.

When we feel flat and lack drive, it’s all too easy to only see the worst parts and so make that conscious effort to find your wins, re-set your goals if you need to and take some of that positive energy with you as you continue to push forward.

MISTAKE NUMBER 6: You’ve lost sight of why you started

Like I say above, we live in a busy world and many of us have high expectations upon us (even if they are self imposed!) and with that comes the constant ‘in the moment’ living where we may be fire fighting, reacting or proactively chasing the next shiny thing. And that’s all ok so long as you feel good about it, but when we start to lose our drive or motivation, perhaps it’s time to check in with ourselves to question what we are doing.

All too often, we have actually lost sight or lost our connection to the reason why we started ‘this thing’ in the first place. That reason that was pretty significant and important to us, that fed our motivation in the early days, and saw us have the success we have to date. And while it may well have evolved over time and slightly changed, the chances are its still there and pretty easy to find, we just have to pause and tune back into it.

So, why did you start this in the first place? Was it to earn money to pay down the mortgage so you could pay the school fees with less stress? To pay for the trip overseas that will be the biggest adventure of your life? To make an impact on the community that makes you feel you’re giving back to a greater cause? To secure the promotion that will build your confidence among your peers? To learn a new skill and stand proud when you qualify?

Whatever it is, ask yourself some questions to qualify and challenge your ‘reasons’ and ensure that they are still meaningful enough to you. Meaningful enough for you to get behind them, get excited by them, and motivated again for the work you do. And if you can no longer connect to the reasons that drive you and you can’t find new reasons then it may well be time to reflect on your work situation as a whole and tune back into your broader life goals and re-assess your career plan.

How much of that resonates with you? What is the first thing you are going to do in order to improve your situation? Do you feel like your reasons for lacking motivation are quite different? Of course there are a multitude of reasons to lack motivation and these are just 5 of the most common things I see that can be ‘easy fixes’ without too much dramatic action. If however, you would like to dig a little deeper to understand what may be going on for you personally then I invite you to try my Worksheet ‘‘7 Steps To Identify A Lack Of Motivation At Work (and what to do about it)’’, it’s FREE and you can download it easily here.