Why am I not motivated at work?

When I asked my client what she wanted to discuss in our session, she told me she was really struggling with motivation at work and wanted to know if I had any tools to help her find her mojo again…

I wish it was as easy as teaching someone a few tools or popping a magic motivation pill; however, it runs deeper than this. So we started to explore the situation in more depth.

• How long had she been feeling like this?
• What changed?
• When was the last time she felt motivated?
• How is this different to what she’s currently doing?
• What do her days currently look like?
• What tasks is she doing?
• Do these tasks energise or drain her?
• Does she feel she’s good at these tasks or does she find them hard?
• How interested is she in what she’s doing?
• What does she love to do?
• How much of her day is spent doing what she loves?

This provided a lot of clarity on the reason for her dwindling motivation and once we got clear about what was really going on, it opened up new perspectives and potential solutions to the problem.

The reasons we struggle with motivation at work are vast and will be unique to you and your situation, so I thought I’d share with you how motivation works and some of the things that could be affecting it. 

How motivation works

Motivation is either towards something you want or away from something you don’t want. 

Moving away from the pain of your current situation can be great for getting you started but often it’s not enough to sustain the changes you wish to make. It’s also often reactive and undirected – anywhere often seems better than where you currently are!

The other problem with 'away from' motivation is that once you’ve moved away from the pain then your motivation disappears! That is until the next painful situation comes along to spur you into action. The point is that it’s inconsistent and cannot be relied upon.

Moving away from pain is also pretty stressful. Yes, you may be successful, but at what cost? If your motivation is coming from fear (of failure, judgement, loss, scarcity, etc) you will be in a perpetual state of anxiety.

Towards motivation, on the other hand, is about creating a vision or goal so you know where you are heading, and more importantly, why you want to get there. It creates a sense of direction.

When you have a clear vision, your motivation usually increases the closer you get to reaching it, therefore this type of motivation is more consistent and reliable.

Most importantly, it feels different. It’s not as heavy or stressful and more exciting. It’s easier to persevere through the challenges that will inevitably arise because you are moving towards something you really want.

Playing to your strengths

So many of us have an unconscious belief that in order to be successful we must work hard. We also often fear failure and disappointing others, so this drives us to persevere and push through even when everything inside us wants to quit.

I’m not saying perseverance is bad per se; however if we aren’t interested in what we are doing, if we find it boring more often than not, if we are doing things that don’t come naturally to us and that drain all our joy and energy from our soul, or because we feel we 'should', persevering is probably not a good option...

There are things in this world that you are naturally good at. That you do well without really trying. That light you up! The fact that they usually come more easily to you may mean you have discounted them as not being valuable, but these things are your own secret sauce.

I know that we’ve all been taught that we should work on developing our weaknesses, but honestly, those things are weaknesses for a reason– usually because you aren’t interested in them or you aren’t naturally good at them! So do you really want to spend even more time working on them?

If you want a more fulfilling work life stop persevering, face your fears, play to your strengths and cultivate a career that enables you to spend as much time as possible doing things that you actually enjoy.

Making space for what’s important

Sometimes when we are struggling with motivation at work it’s because there’s something about it that feels incompatible with something else that’s important to us. To figure this out, we first have to get clear about what’s important to us – our core values.

I always say that when we are living in alignment with our core values, life is generally easier, more peaceful and happier. When we veer off track it creates a kind of inner conflict, and whilst life might look great on the outside, you’ll probably feel unsatisfied, unfulfilled and a bit meh!

I have my values written down and I use them to help me to make important decisions. When things start to feel funky in my life, they are what I come back to to help figure out what’s not working. 

• Connection – with myself and with others.
• Freedom – time, space, to be myself, to choose.
• Growth – open to different perspectives, continued learning and development.
• Well-being – physical, emotional and mental well-being.
• Making an impact – being of service, inspiring others.
• Aesthetics – appreciation of beautiful things, nature, design, a nice environment, self-care.
• Safety – trust, feeling comfortable, peaceful, and content. 

My life has been curated around these values. I designed and built my own house. I live in a small village in the countryside surrounded by nature, my people and my community. I get to read personal development books and learn as part of my job. I run my own business so I get to be me and choose how and when I work. I prioritise my well-being by blocking out time in my schedule for self-care and all the things that are important to me. I get to connect, inspire and make an impact through my coaching practice and writing.

There are still parts of my life that I’m working on but over the years, through a lot of trial and error, I’ve managed to create a way of living that feels good (most of the time)! Does my motivation dwindle at times? Absolutely. And this is when I come back to my values and my vision for the life I want to lead.

Often my clients tell me they are looking for some kind of financial success, which makes sense, money is important! For years my career decisions were based on making more money, more status, and more success. However, when I dive deeper into why people want financial success, it’s often because they believe that money will provide the other things they desire – more freedom, time, enjoyment, and happiness.

If we don’t dig a little bit deeper and get clear on what and why, we could end up in a career that provides a lot of financial success but very little freedom, work/life balance and happiness. Equally, if we understand what makes us happy first and start creating success from this place, we are more likely to feel fulfilled when we achieve it.

Signs of burnout

The World Health Organisation defines burnout as a mix of these three components:

1. Emotional and physical exhaustion/fatigue

No matter how much sleep or rest you get you can’t get back to feeling that energetic version of yourself. You feel rundown and don’t have the same sense of stamina or resilience you’ve had in the past.

2. Depersonalisation

A depletion of empathy, caring and compassion, feeling apathetic. Not having the same level of compassion for ourselves or others that we might normally have. Not having the same emotional range, tolerance and kindness as before.

3. Decreased sense of achievement

Feeling like nothing you do makes any difference, what’s the point, nothing I do makes any difference, it’s terrible. Not being able to hit the same performance levels as you have in the past. Unable to find the motivation to put the effort in.

Burnout is caused by excessive and prolonged periods of unmanaged stress – an imbalance between all the demands being made of us and our internal and external resources available to meet the demands.

Chronic stress happens when we are functioning in a stress state frequently or continually with little or no recovery. It is harmful to our mental and physical well-being and can have long-term consequences. It builds without us noticing and causes us to feel exhausted, depleted, lacking in motivation and impacts our performance.

Burnout is more than just work, it’s often a mixture of 'all the things' that can build up in our personal and professional life over a period of time for us to reach the point of burnout. 

Often burnout gets brushed off and we minimise, beat ourselves up or make excuses for our feelings – "I’m 'just' a bit overwhelmed and tired after the last few years..." We don’t acknowledge how we really feel and the toll things are taking on us.

The way to recover from burnout (or avoid getting to that point) is to first be honest with yourself about how you are really feeling. The next step is to explore ways to either reduce or reappraise the demands (things that are asked of us/responsible for) and/or start to build our resources (things that build our energy and support us) to be able to manage increased demand.

If you are struggling with motivation or burnout and would like some help figuring out what isn’t working for you and what you can do differently, then please do not hesitate to reach out.