Finding the energy for any difficult project in the workplace may make you feel like you are running an actual marathon. These two activities seem completely different, yet behavioral science can be applied to both situations to help motivate and spark greatness.
According to Charlotte Blank, Chief Behavioral Officer, Maritz.com and PeopleScience.comcontributor, key principles such as framing your goal can help propel you across the finish line, not only at work but life in general.
Here are 5 tips from Charlotte on how to motivate yourself to achieve your goals:
- Choose a thoughtful goal: When choosing your goal, pick something achievable (truly impossible goals set us up for failure, which is super demotivating), but be honest with yourself. You can probably do more. If you’re progressing well and have the energy to spare, push yourself with a stretch goal.
- Commitment: Hold yourself accountable – Goals matter. We’re wired to find a way to hit our target, even a random one.
- Feedback: A crowd support has a significant effect, as science shows runners run faster when running with others. And encouragement from others is uplifting.
- Reward yourself: When you achieve your goal, it’s important to reward yourself! Rewards feel good by nature, and they serve an important purpose. They help to solidify good behaviors into healthy habits.
- Retrospection: Running a marathon, launching a business, hitting a tough sales goal – they all require pain for gain. Thankfully, our brains are biased toward the sweet accomplishment at the end, encouraging us to repeat and build upon our most difficult, yet most rewarding, the experience.
