Why self-motivation is key to career stability

Kenya: Motivation is a key human behaviour that drives performance. It makes individuals show the world what they are made of. Unfortunately, motivation levels decline as a person settles in the workplace.

Expectations become different as staff focus on other aspects of the career such as payrise, promotion and work environment, among other issues. Motivation drives one towards a particular goal and stimulates desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, subject or strive to achieve a goal.

Organisations have devised different mechanisms to keep their employees motivated. Strategies such as productivity-based incentives, competitive compensation schemes, recognition programmes and promotions are employed by most employers to keep employees focused at work and bringing out their best abilities for the attainment of organisational goals.

Successful individuals say what drives them is inherent purpose in life. They have drawn a clear map of their life and their success is simply a consequence of focusing on their star.

A self-motivated person is always excited and passionate about his career and seldom suffers from work fatigue. They will work whether the boss is around or not.

Organisation’s goals

Self-motivated people rarely suffer from some diseases associated with stress because they enjoy their work. They have made a deliberate and conscious decision to work productively for the achievement of the organisation’s goals as well as their personal goals.

When setbacks sets in, a self-motivated person will slow down to re-evaluate and refocus but will seldom stop or quit. Self-motivation can be developed by any willed individual. An attitude of gratitude will keep you motivated despite the challenges at work. Identifying your career anchors is known as one of the key ingredients of self-motivation. Do you love serving others? Is job satisfaction in supervising others or in problem solving?

Do you like dealing with challenging projects or do you enjoy showcasing your technical and functional competence? To keep yourself self-motivated, you must focus on your long-term career goals.

Focusing on short-term achievements or failures can cause much distress. But a long-term view helps harness the much-needed energy. Ensure you associate with the right people, read the right books and keep a positive and level-headed attitude.

Steer clear of useless discussions and associations, whether formal or informal. Keep track of your every career step, and strive to make each career stride better than the last. Learn to quickly forgive and move on, rather than sit back and get discouraged.

Take note to appreciate small things. Remember big things start small. You cannot lay back and wait for your employer to beg, cajole or force you to get motivated. Many organisations operate on shoe string budget and resources may not always be available for this purpose.

In any case this is your career and you should be in the front line, doing everything it takes to create your own success.

-The writer is a human resource specialist with Peoplelink Consultants Ltd. Email: goretti@peoplelink.co.ke