Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Feeling Motivated?

By Ben Timmermans, CLAC Representative

By February, it is estimated that about 80 percent of people have already abandoned their New Year’s resolutions. It turns out there is a very compelling reason for this: It’s very hard to sustain our motivation over a long period of time.

Think this isn’t true? Ever tell yourself, “I’m going to clean the house top to bottom as soon as I get home from work?” Then you get home and the kids have made a mess, you have to make dinner, and the kids need help with their homework. Once that’s all finished, you move a few things out of the way so your house doesn’t look like a complete disaster, and that’s good enough.

See, maintaining your original motivation can be hard! Especially because it has so much to do with our emotions and how we’re left feeling after completing (or not completing) any given task we’ve set out for ourselves.

In a recent TIME article, there is evidence that suggests the hardwiring of our brains can actually help us create new habits very quickly. The author, Stanford professor BJ Fogg, suggests that you can hack your own motivation and make lasting changes faster and with greater success. He calls it his “tiny habit method” that simply boils down to: break down big change into tiny actions, find where they fit naturally into your life, and then you feel good by celebrating.

The study states that if we associate positive emotions right after completing a new task you want to become a habit, it can occur rather quickly; in fact, almost instantly if we celebrate in the moment. Fogg goes on to suggest that the simple act of cheering, clapping, fist pumping, or some other self-affirming action, can cause you to form and maintain the newly acquired habit much faster than you might think possible.

As we celebrate the task’s completion, our brains are wired to associate positive emotions with the new habit and therefore cement it in our minds as something we want to do going forward. This is rather powerful—the old adage of having to slog through numerous days of repetition to form a new habit is actually outdated!

This caused me to ask the question: What if we were to apply this to our work? What if teams would celebrate more during the course of a project as opposed to only after it was completed?

We would enjoy the work more and most likely have better results; employees who are happy perform better than those who are not. It would also help with team building and boost morale at the same time.

I know I’m making this sound almost too easy, but I’m also aware that it can be difficult when deadlines are looming or our employers don’t buy into this type of thinking. However, as workers, we can empower ourselves and our own teams to celebrate the small stuff during the process, not just after it’s done. Create little mile markers for yourselves and then celebrate together as you achieve them!

According to the research, this will positively influence your emotions and drive you to do better work and enjoy it more along the way. Having fun at work can be possible if we develop the right mindset.

So let’s hack our emotions for our own advantage and maybe turn that New Year’s resolution into a lifelong habit.

Feeling Motivated?

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