It is alarming when according to the frequently cited Gallup’s State of the American Workplace: 2010-2012 report 50% of all full time employees are not engaged at work and 20% (that is ~20 million people!) are even actively disengaged at work. As the study writes, these “are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.”
Frustration often creeps into the work we are currently doing, be it in a job, as entrepreneur or elsewhere. Of course there is a multitude of reasons for why we can become disconnected with the work we are doing. For example micromanaging superiors, unpleasant clients, lack of incentives for good work, nasty colleagues, brutal competition, tedious routine, having no decision power, getting lost in micro-tasks, etc.
These all limit our motivation and can lead to a lack of confidence in the work we do and our future if we keep at it.
Even if we love our jobs there are still these phases when everything we do seems pointless. When we feel whatever we do has no purpose or impact. Those are the moments when we can easily become disconnected with our work.
We often hear how we have to follow our passion and do what we love. The problem is that we may be at the ground level, being busy earning the money and just surviving day by day. There is no passion lost in these moments, the thought of unfulfilled dreams and plans only adds to the frustration. Only after crawling out of this motivational ditch we can enjoy the luxury of thinking about what lies ahead in “Passion-Country”.
So how to regain motivation?
What is the big picture? It is simple, you earn money, because you are solving someone’s problem. At least this is why you got employed or started your business in the first place. Sure, it is totally possible that over time somehow your duties got morphed into absolute nonsense. However regardless of whether you just feel that this is the case or it is actually so, you need to find the main problems you are solving. They are there, trust me.
These are your anchors or hooks that define your work. This is what you should be doing. And of course in order to solve these problems there are many, many other smaller, tedious, ugly, annoying things to do. But now you know why you are doing these, and you know why you need to get them done faster and better. So that you can return to solving THE Problem, because that is what you do.
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