9 tips to staying motivated in your career and business journey

#AfterOfficeHours: 9 tips to staying motivated in your career and business journey

Last week we had the privilege of having Lizz Ntonjira Mutuma speak at our After-Office Hours session.

During the session, she spoke around several areas that could help individuals grow not only from entrepreneurship and employment perspective but also from a personal and growth.

Here are a few key takeaways from the session that can help us not only in our workplace but also in our day to day career and business growth

Have a Personal Mission and Vision

You could probably recite the mission statement of your employer. But if someone asked you what your personal mission, vision, and values are, would you be able to answer?

It takes effort to identify your ultimate goals, and imagine a bigger picture of how you could be living.

As an individual, ensure that you have the vision and mission-aligned. Set out your goals. The keyword here is alignment.

As an individual at all levels, you need your vision aligned on your larger goals, and those goals need to be broken down to a smaller scale to ensure that you remain engaged in day-to-day operations.

A personal mission underpins your career mission statement, yet the two differ. Your career version strategically plans where you want to be professionally in five years. The personal type deals with how you define your purpose as an individual.

On the other hand, your vision could be much more specific. Notice that there is legacy involved; capturing the impression you want people to summon when they think about you. Consider using a day off for career development when pondering this.

Forget Hard work, Work smart

Working smart differs from every person depending on their unique personal mission statement and definition of success.

This means figuring out what your strengths are and building a network around you to build upon those in order to reach goals in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

We live in a competitive world today where every day we have new innovations, or even new graduates joining the workforce. In Kenya alone, about 800,000 people graduate every year. Try to find out what will set you apart and find allies that will help you reach your goals.

Resilience

When we talk about resilience, we’re talking about the ability to cope with the ups and downs and bounce back from challenges. In a workplace setting, this can be applied to employees’ abilities to manage anything from a tough workload to frustrating colleagues. It is said that those with greater resilience are better able to manage stress, which is a risk factor for conditions such as anxiety and depression.

What inspires us in our business journey is other people who have resilience. Always have that ‘Oprah’ that Steve Jobs that Bill Gates or even Elon Musk in your life who lifts and inspires your thoughts and ways.

Trust your journey

Competition is good. But every day you wake up you need to be ready to compete with yourself first. Always strive to be a better version of the person you were yesterday.

Never stop learning

Apart from formal education, never stop learning as an entrepreneur. The world is changing every day and every day presents a new opportunity to learn a thing or two. The best entrepreneurs and most successful business people are always looking for ways to expand their knowledge, improve their skills and keep up to date with any developments, both in their own industry and the broader environment. Why does this thirst for knowledge and capacity for learning matter?

Never take chances, identify people you admire and read blogs, watch TED Talks that matter and are in line with your career. The outside world is constantly shifting and changing, and as more research is done on management and business skills, the more effective training becomes, and the more insight is gained into the best ways of working and improving your business

Patience

In order to succeed in every walk of life, one needs to have a great deal of enduring patience. Be able to prioritize your jobs and projects well. I know in a previous article we talked about active procrastination and why it is okay to procrastinate occasionally.

Have the essence of prioritizing on works and projects and the patience of failing occasionally. Additionally, have the patience of growing into the process.

Many a time, you need to face such situations that require patience. Such as, working extra hours to finish an urgent task. And after a not so busy day when you are about to leave the office an email pops and you are given a task to accomplish for certain valid reasons.

There also may be problems you may encounter at work. You need to meet and deal with people, who you consider don’t meet your expectations, or you may be treated differently being regarded as you don’t meet with their expectations.

However, if you embrace such situations and take them patiently, you can create a good image in your superiors and coworkers. It causes you to gain their trust. If you gain trust and work honestly showing your competence, the chances of professional growth are positive for you.

Apply the S.M.A.R.T Objectives

In our line of duty, we have come across the S.M.A.R.T Objectives. This a simple acronym that one should take into account when setting up their goals. This stands for Specific, Measurable w/Measurement, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Oriented and Specific.

Delving a little deeper into this, Lizz explained that as an entrepreneur or even as you work up your career, set goals that should be able to explain what is to be done? How will you know it is done? How will you know it meets expectations, can the person do it? Can the measurable objective be achieved by the person? Does he/she have the experience, knowledge or capability of fulfilling the expectation? What will be the impact? and when will it be done?

Get a mentor

Do not underestimate the power of mentorship. Some of the highest achievers in history, from business people to artists to entrepreneurs, have sought out the guidance of a mentor. A mentor is further along in their career than you and can offer insight, guidance, and advice that is worth its weight in gold.

They have gone through their own process of building a career like what you aspire to and can offer sane advice from a place of knowledge that can be particularly relevant to helping you grow.

Surround yourself with the right people.

We are the sum of the people we spend time with. Surround yourself with people who you aspire to be like. Go to networking events, request meetings, and get to know the movers and shakers in your industry and related fields. Not only will they inspire you to improve, but since business is so relationship-based, these networking efforts can open doors.