HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF!

How to Motivate Yourself!

Being motivated at all times may not come easy. Many things can cause motivation to dwindle. Motivation may dwindle due to fatigue, depression or stress. Disappointments or life problems may contribute to this also. Some people manage to overcome these, and get down to the job, while others can't seem to pull themselves together and keep on moving towards their goals. If this is your situation what then do you do to regain and sustain motivation?

Finding yourself in a difficult and desperate situation can be bad enough. But do this; think about why everything happened exactly? Take some time for this. Don’t rush through it. Take the blame that you did something wrong if you did and move forward? Do not spend time doing things that do not matter.  

Do not try to take on too much load in your hand at a particular time. In the end, you simply will not cope with the load. Try to focus on the main objective and to deal only with it.

Find someone you would like to be leveled with, whose success is inspiring and motivating. It could be anyone who purposefully goes to achieve goals. They are steadfast in their achievements. Seek them out and emulate them. This can be a very huge source of motivation.

Be excited about your goals, otherwise you would not be able to achieve them. Consider your future and what it may have for you if you achieve your goals. Talk about the benefit it will bring to you. Call yourself to action when you feel the thrill, knowing that by achieving your goals you will achieve success and satisfaction.

Continually remind yourself of your goal. It’s easy if you write it down and paste it somewhere it will be noticeable to you at all times of the day.

Seek out like-minded people whose purpose coincides with your own. Get help from friends and people close to you.

Motivation may reduce or increase, it may come and go. The secret is to try to remain in a positive mood during the down times. Seek the counsel of family and friends, also do things you like. Go to the beach, go see a movie with your spouse, play board games or even take a trip.

Do not give up under any circumstances.

STAY FOCUSED WHILE LEARNING!

Stay Focused While Learning...

How focused are you while learning? Ask yourself this question. Or is your focus transient while learning? If so, this may not do you good? You may be doing yourself a disservice? Much may be expected of you after the learning process.

Learn to stay focused while you are learning for that is the foundation for mastery.  Soak up all that you have to learn within the time allocated to learn whatever it is. Be interested in every single detail of the exercise and don’t let your mind be swayed while you do so.

Do you have issues concentrating while you learn? Seek out an interactive session and keep your mind focused on the person leading. Show up, be interested and ask questions. Always remember to keep a note.

If you are learning from someone, or it may be an apprenticeship, stay focused while you observe.

One of the best ways of staying focused while learning is to have an inquisitive mind.

Staying focused while learning will accelerate your appetite for learning, and will spur you towards greater heights of knowledge on what it is you may be learning until you become a master.

Stay focused! Become a master!

KEEP THE ZEAL ON!

Keep the Zeal On...

For a lot of workers around the world, getting up early in the morning is a piece of cake; they even wake up before the alarm rings. With zeal they get up in the morning, with zeal they take their showers, get dressed, sometimes even skip breakfast, and eagerly zoom of into the traffic, heading to work. Now, their motivation may not just be to sign in early, or to be the first to walk into the office. They have a genuine zeal to get to work. Consequently they get to work early, punch in or sign in, get to their work station, and occupy it. However it ends there. From then on their zeal gradually dwindle. All eagerness is gone and work goes on from that high point to consecutive lows.

Friend, keep the zeal on. It pays to train yourself as much as possible to finish each day on a high- that is, at the same zeal level you started the day. Let you day’s work show that there is a force within you. Your bosses and colleagues will see it and know that you are not one to joke around with, that you are a fellow with a mission. The results will equally show, for the works of an eager person is way up there.

This is usually all it takes to stand out from the teeming masses- continually having the zeal to perform. Trust me you will always sleep better haven known that you put in your best for the day. This is the attitude it takes to rise to the top of any organization even if you started at rock bottom.

Practice this today, practice this every day, it may take a conscious effort to do so but the results will show in how people view you and the excellence in your delivery of tasks and projects.

MUSIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE!

Music from the Other Side (Part 1)

I remember Lagos, like it was yesterday. I remember the traffic on Carter Bridge enroute Victoria Island where there was the Big Ben studio. There were so many sights for us to see- my brother and I, and I remember them vividly. I remember the ocean, the hawkers and the clear blue sky. He was the only one who believed in my music-my younger brother, and he would start singing them as soon as I wrote them down. Imagine me, twenty-five and very strong, wanting to be a musician. It was 1984, at that time aspiring to be a musician could be described as a cardinal sin. Everyone was going to school and there I was, aspiring to become a musician. What a joke, or so people thought. However, I pressed on with my dream and it was not too long before I hit my goal. I will tell you how it happened.

There was a studio located at Victoria Island in Lagos and it was by chance that we came to know of it. We were in a barber shop when we heard a nicely dressed man describing his office on the Island to someone “It is beside the Big Ben studio,” we heard him say, clearly stating the address in the conversation. We had very sharp brains, my brother and I, and we crammed the address without writing it down. Studios were scarce in Lagos at the time and sourcing them out was hard, especially from a JJC like me. We were delighted and seeing that we had no money for transport begged the barber to lend us some money. We promised to pay back the following week. We had a part time job off-loading containers at the port, so in a way we were credit worthy. He lent us Five Niara which we felt would be sufficient for us and thus planned our journey. That night I could not sleep for I was so excited.

The following morning we were Island bound, entering the big busses and jibing our way without any care in the world. As I said earlier, we had sharp brains, so it wasn’t hard locating the Big Ben studio. Entering the building to me felt like coming home. I was entranced by the spirit of music. My brother tagged along and I was indeed glad that he was by my side.

It wasn’t so much a large building but I did not seem to care. A single room that housed a guitar was to me as big as a stadium. So I can say it was the biggest office in Lagos. I walked in and asked to see the studio manager.

‘May I know your name, please?’ The secretary asked me. She was a young woman, smartly dressed and about my age. (To be continued…)

HOW TO MAKE YOUR BOSS LIKE YOU!

How to make your boss like you!

There are a few things that you can do to make your boss like you, and trust me, it is important that your boss likes you. Your promotion or salary increase may just depend on this likeability. I have encountered many employees who complain of being on the same salary for too long or being in the same position for several years, constantly been passed up during promotions. These are pitiable conditions which should not necessarily be the case for them. The truth is, often times the real culprits here are the employees- they don’t know the how to of getting into privileged positions.

Might I say that in every organisation there are those few who no matter the position they occupy, whether high level or low level, they seem to have things going good for them. Everyone seems attracted to them and are ready to nominate them for tasks. They are what I call the comfortable guys. Are you a comfortable guy? Kudos if you are. However, this article is not for you. This article is for the guys who aspire to be comfortable guys, who aspire to be the go to guys or ladies as the case may be. This article is for the people who want their bosses to like them and give them a favourable atmosphere to achieve the potential that they know they have.

Below, I will explain a few things that you can do that will assure you of the love of your boss.

Show initiative- There is nothing more annoying than an employee who doesn’t seem to know where the company is going (or your boss is going). Such an employee is nothing more than a seat filler in the organisation. Employees with strong initiative capabilities always seem to have the day. They are the ones who seem to stand out during meetings, and they always seem to know what is going on and know the right words to say to their boss and their colleagues. If you initiative is low, you might just be a seat filler and your boss may not value you that much. Initiative stems from knowledge, you have to know the technical requirements, know the organisational goals, know your boss, and are, to an extent, an independent thinker. A lot of wit is required in this respect and you have to be ready and willing to fail to be able to have the good courage that initiative requires. A boss always like a subordinate he can safely delegate tasks to. Such a subordinate can be an oasis in the desert and he has the boss’ ear.

Be Organised- Your boss is someone who probably has been through a lot of training to get to where he is. Automatically he may become judgemental of his subordinates, you included, as to the way you organise yourselves. He watches the way you dress, the way you file your documents, the way your table is arranged, the way you address other people. The truth is, if you want your boss to like you then you must organise yourself properly. Being disorganised will only show him that you are not ready for the next level. ‘Why not wait for him to grow up’, he will always say to himself. Meanwhile other grownups will take your place at the high table. Trust me you don’t want this to be you.

Mimic your boss- Mimicking is the best form of flattery. However, in this case, I am not talking about flattery neither am I encouraging you to flatter your boss. I am not an advocate for flattery because it may blur professionalism or create suspicion. What I am talking about here is creating closeness between you and your boss. Write as he writes, talk like he talks, and try to understand like he understands. In time you will begin to see things from his point of view, and when he assigns you a task you will get it done in such a way that he will believe he would not have done it differently- this becomes a winning moment for you. More so, you will have been empowered with a great deal of knowledge.

Talk (Say your mind) - You are not in competition with your boss. Or are you? Learn how to talk to your boss. When he asks a question respond. When he says; ‘Well, what do you think?’ Don’t be that employee that has nothing to say in reply. Or the one who says, ‘I think am ok with what Mr A or Mrs B just said.’ Let me tell you what your boss will think when you give him such a reply. When you are all gone and he is in his office alone, he will say to himself, ‘Can I bank on her intelligence when the shit hits the fan?’ Kindly consider this; a boss will always seek employees that he can bring close. This he must do. Will you be among them? I prefer that you are.

Know your work- As a matter of fact I can conclude by saying that if you didn’t know your work you probably wouldn’t have been considered for the job. Since you know your job there you deserve to climb to the echelon of the organisation and deserve also a time to time increment to your salary. I can guarantee that if you follow my recommendations here, you will assuredly bid goodbye to that stagnated position you are in and lunch into a superior one and also into a fatter pay cheque.

It’s easy to be liked by your boss who ultimately may be the one who decides your future within the organisation. So now that you have gained some insight, I dare say, see you at the top.