Work Motivation

After you have been working for awhile, your see yourself as an employee. You think, "I work for company A" or "I am a manager at company B." I think this is true whether you define your work as a "job" or as a "career."

It is easy to fall into this trap. The newness fades away and work becomes routine. It happens to all of us at some point. But, it is far more rewarding to see yourself as contributing value rather than simply doing work. Instead, assert your own personality traits and let work become a form of self-expression. Work doesn't define you, you define the work. Put another way, the job is what you bring to it.

See the company as being a piece of you instead of you being a piece of the company. My Dad likes to say, "The company doesn't own you. When you are there, you are just on rent and you can choose to who pays you for your services." It reminds me that it is my choice to be at work and that work doesn't define who I am.

Think about some of the people at work who had a positive effect on you. Instead of behaving like employees, I bet they added real value. When you add real value, you can be extremely effective in a very brief amount of time. Exceptional salesmen, business leaders and public speakers all have the ability to leave a lasting impression, and potentially change people's minds, within the time constraints of a sales call, a business meeting, or a luncheon presentation. With just one quote, Anthony Robbins can change the way you view your life. That kind of impact is in high demand.

The demand for your work is dependent upon how much lasting value you deliver. The benefit you can deliver to others matters a lot more than your position in the company. As Zig Ziglar says, "You can have everything you want in life, if you will just help other people get what they want."

Focus on doing meaninful work that has a real impact and delivers real value. Intentionally create more value in the work that you do by delivering "meatier" value to more people, more often and faster. Make it something they can really sink their teeth into. Become more impactful. If you find that you "just go through the motions", then start to think differently about your career. No matter what type of work you do and no matter where you are on the career ladder, your work eventually touches another person. How can you make your work more valuable to him/her? How can you make theirs lives happier or their decisions easier?

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