NewZealandCoach’s Weblog

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while – it often shows up in my stats as something a lot of people search for.

There’s all kinds of advice I could give, and a million different topics that come under this heading.  But I think there’s just one important thing you can do for yourself, if you’re losing motivation and have no idea how to get it back.

Losing motivation can manifest itself in lots of different ways.  You might hate getting up in the morning, you might fight with your colleagues, you think the job is boring and yet you can’t be bothered looking for something better.  The whole place just makes you feel bored and frustrated … you can’t get away from it, it’s always on your mind.

From my observations and personal experience, the most important thing is to make sure you have a balanced life outside of work.  

It sounds so simple.

People who are tense and frustrated at work most often do not have a balanced life.  They’ve got no hobbies, no social life, they’re unhappy in general and it’s not just work.  They most often are not eating properly, they don’t get enough sleep.  Their personal relationships are not what they should be.  They have nothing to look forward to and they feel as if they’re wasting their life working where they are.

They also identify strongly with ‘what they do’.

They are a doctor, a teacher, an accountant, a mother, a receptionist, a bank teller.

They’re not anything else.  They have no other identity.  If you ask them, they can’t happily reel off a list of things they love to do outside of work.  They spend their weekends catching up on housework and other stuff that bores them, they don’t do anything ‘just for fun’.  When bad things happen at work, they take it very personally.  Performance reviews etc take on a very personal meaning.  A colleagues casual comment can sting them for weeks.

If you’ve come here looking for motivation because you’ve got a boring job, I think you need to have a look at your entire life, not just work.  This is what coaches do.  They help you to identify what’s actually bothering you, and to break it down into manageable parts.  I guarantee it won’t be just your job that’s boring you, it’ll be other stuff as well.  Once you get it all into perspective and start looking after yourself you’ll gain huge benefits and feel a lot happier.  Things at work won’t have the same impact on you – it is just a job.  I don’t care how ambitious you are, in the end you’re a human being, not a job description.

Email me: coachdawnunderscorenewzealandatyahoodotcom