Motivation And Staying Motivated
During Tough Times

Motivation can be a key determining factor in our success or lack thereof during our career.

Certainly, staying motivated can be a difficult task during our work career. Sometimes we start feeling bored at work and start wondering if we should look for a new job and in the meantime our output at the current job starts to suffer as we lose motivation.

If we're out of work, we can find ourselves feeling unmotivated especially if our efforts to regain employment have not yet worked out.

Sometimes, doing little things to keep busy can be the best way to remain motivated especially when it comes to your career.

I've been laid off twice during my career during corporate downsizings, once when the company I worked for closed completely. During this period, I found it easy to feel less than motivated to actually find a new job even though I really wanted to work!

I found it very difficult to regain my motivation at times but at other times, I quickly found myself suddenly motivated to look for a new job.

Then the feeling would pass and I'd be unmotivated again!

What I discovered is that I helped myself become more motivated by keeping busy doing things – doing anything – whether it was work related or not.

Certainly doing things that helped to get me closer to getting a new job – updating my resume, applying for jobs, attending a job fair, speaking with people who could influence my job search, etc – were great ideas, but there were also other things I did that kept me busy, kept me motivated and equally importantly kept me sane!

I went out rollerblading every day for an hour.

I started going to the gym more often.

I painted my condo and did other work around the house with help from my dad.

In other words, I did stuff I'd been meaning to do for awhile but didn't have enough time to do when I was working.

Getting depressed can be fairly easy to accomplish if things aren't going so well in life but doing small things to remain motivated can really help you realize that things aren't so bad. When you're down, the last thing you want to do is knock yourself down even further.

To stay motivated especially during time of change or times of difficulty, try keeping busy doing things you've been meaning to do but have been putting off. Remember to have some fun, too.