How to Keep your Motivation Flowing

Here we are in October with another year already in sight. Ahoy there, 2022!

Have you managed to sail through your goals so far this year? Or is motivation ebbing? Are you or your team stuck in the doldrums, or are you still billowing full sail and riding the waves of motivational driven success?

Okay, enough with the sailing analogies!

At this time of year, as the seasons change and the darker days of winter approaches, our motivation tends to dip. We need to get our motivation back and find our solution focused mindset again. It’s time to reacquaint ourselves with our purpose.

Revisit Your Goals

Take your mind back to the time you set your current goals. Remind yourself and your team of what you wanted to achieve in both the short and longer term.

My January newsletter was all about reminding yourself of your purpose for realistic goal setting, and challenging your growth through the GROW model:

• Goal
• Reality
• Options
• Will, Way and When

So, how are you getting on with your goals?

If motivation has dwindled and your goals aren’t on track, use the growth model I set out previously to reflect on your goals and see where you’ve got to. Regularly doing this exercise can help boost your motivation as well as your team’s.

Changing Tact for a Realistic Outcome

Have you achieved what you wanted to when you needed to? Implemented that new software solution? Got the new job? Saved that £10k? If not, instead of wasting energy worrying about why, adjust your strategy.

If you haven’t achieved what you wanted to by now, don’t be put off. Chances are circumstances got in the way and made it difficult. Instead, look at the situation as a new challenge – we dealt with challenges in my March newsletter, so remind yourself of that now.

Tweaking your goals to suit the current situation helps to strengthen motivation. You’ll also be far more likely to do what’s needed to achieve them.

All it takes is a little change to make a big difference.

Congratulate Yourself for Every Little Win

Staying motivated means congratulating yourself for every little win.

Even the small wins add up to achieving the greater goal. So, it’s important to allow yourself or your team a reward as you progress through the goals.

Using Motivational Language

The words that we use, either to ourselves or with others, can impact your actions. When we discuss new ideas, goals, strategies and KPIs, sometimes our language puts barriers in the way.

How often do you hear yourself saying, ‘Yes, but…’ when someone suggests doing something different?

The word ‘but’ is very negative. It sends a dismissive message to the person who made the suggestion, which is de-motivating. When you say, ‘Yes, but’, it often means ‘No’.

When you focus on your language, you help create a more positive feeling, improving both your motivation and your team’s. So, instead of saying ‘but’, say ‘and’.

Perhaps a team member suggests doing something in a different way and you would normally say, ‘Yes, but we don’t have time to change that.’ Instead, you could say, ‘Yes, and we’ll look at how we can fit those changes in with our current workload.’

Use ‘Yes, and…’ in your 66-Day Challenge

‘Yes, and…’ is a far more powerful, positive response and is likely to greatly improve your people’s motivation. In fact, saying ‘Yes, and…’ instead of an immediate ‘No’ or ‘Yes, but…’ already creates a feeling of positivity.

In last month’s newsletter about the need to keep practising to achieve success, I reminded you about the 66-Day Challenge. There’s even a PDF download in it to help. Practising saying ‘Yes, and…’ is a perfect exercise to do here. Focus on saying, ‘Yes, and…’ as a response and you should find yourself saying it naturally within 66 days.

The Positive Snowball

One of the activities I use in my workshops is to do with language. I talk about the negative snowball of words and how it can get too big. It becomes demotivating, making it harder for your team to get things done.

So, we make a positive snowball. It starts out small but as we push it around, adding more positive words throughout, we watch it grow bigger and feel it emanating greater positivity. My attendees always get a lot from this activity.

That positive feeling then motivates the desire to create results. Actions appear out of feelings. And those positive results are an opportunity to give yourself a pat on the back.

Ultimately, maintaining motivation drives you and your team to achieve your goals.