Thoughts on Motivation

Thanks to those of you who provided some helpful ideas on motivation in response to my post of a few days ago. Thanks to Kate for dedicating a whole post about it on her own blog! All these ideas are much appreciated and I am going to try them out.

I had a thought on motivation myself this morning. Maybe it's not so much about being directly motivated to do better at work, but about helping myself feel better at work and thus perform better.

I have church at 11 a.m. Which means I usually have plenty of time to get ready on Sunday morning. This means I usually feel like I look pretty good--having had plenty of time to put together an outfit that I like and do a really good job on makeup etc. I was driving to church this morning feeling pleased with my outfit and the outcome of my new eye shadow color experimentation, therefore feeling good about myself and looking forward to being at church. This feel-good attitude also usually means that I am more alert, I engage more with others and participate in discussions etc.

But on most work days, I sleep in until the very last minute, put on the first thing I can find that is clean and in which I don't feel like a stuffed sausage and rush to work--which means I also often feel frump-tastic, unstylish, not confident, unprepared and tired. No wonder I feel so unmotivated about my job!

So, another tactic I'm going to try is to dress for work more carefully. I think this goes along great with Kate's idea about playing a role (see #4 in her entry about Motivation). I mean, if you're going to play a role properly you have to dress the part, right? So I'm going to look at my work clothes as costumes that help me dress the part of someone who enjoys and is good at her job (note: I am good at my job--ask anyone I work with--I just don't always enjoy it).

Wish me luck!