How to stay motivated in 2021

It’s been awhile since the last post and I must say that it has been a rollercoaster ride in the past few months, but I’m back and here to share a personal experience that I’ve been going through that I’m sure many of us face in our hectic schedules, crazy timelines, multiple projects…I get it. This also means that the burnout we tend to face hits a lot harder than we’d imagine because we run at such fast speeds that we don’t notice ourselves burning out, or getting demotivated in what we do. If you’re feeling the same way, fret not, I don’t think you’re alone in this journey.

I love my job, and I love doing what I do for the people around me at work. I know the impact I can bring, and I know my strengths and weaknesses. So why was it that I felt my boat rocking, and how am I coping with it? Here’s how I broke it down using Daniel Pink’s theory of motivation: Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose.

Mastery

Mastery is the ‘desire to improve’. We all strive to be good at something, to ‘be the best' in our own craft. That helps to create the mind space for learning, developing a new skill, setting of goals and new aspirations every time you want to improve in doing something. When you’re on an executive level, or someone starting out in a career, it’s easy to always get your hands dirty and to do the actual groundwork. That helps you accelerate as quickly as you want and as wide a spectrum you can take.

However, you will reach a point where you’ve honed enough hard skills to be ‘better than average’, and you’ve progressed to a level where you don’t need to execute that frequently anymore. I guess, as a designer deep down, that just feels plain weird at times and there are several instances where I wished I could just get my hands dirty, to be in some of the great work that my team members are doing as well. At the same time, you struggle because you fully understand that it’s no longer your time to shine, but your team members, rightfully so. And furthermore, you will need to understand that your skills are ‘no longer the best’ and the rest can probably do a better job than yourself. This is one of the few important traits to acknowledge as you start building up a team.

My personal struggle was that I felt like I was everywhere, but I was also nowhere. This also did not help when I took on other responsibilities outside of my design management scope & that colluded even more of the thinking. Who am I? What am I truly good in that will contribute to the team? These thoughts kept ringing in my head for the longest time.

As I continue to pursue a personal vision in this company, I realize that mastery can come in all forms. From honing hard technical skills to management skills/soft skills, as long as you still have the drive to continue improving in something, that will serve as a part of the motivation to keep on pushing yourself, in your own way.

Autonomy

Autonomy is being in control. Control of situations, of what’s happening, and how you’re able to deflect or reflect the problems independently. Being in an environment like Circles.Life allows great ownership and autonomy in decisions, regardless of ‘rank’ or ‘authority’. We strive in this environment because we are hungry to push, to want to make decisions to improve and grow. However, one important aspect of autonomy is the ability to acknowledge that you are not always right. Acknowledgement of mistakes and taking ownership of decisions is a key value of autonomy.

I’ve had the opportunity to make many decisions in my time here so far, some terribly wrong, and some thankfully right. But having the space to think creatively, propose initiatives and push through programmes that I believe in has helped maintain my motivation here greatly. This is an important aspect that I continue to push for all the members as well, to take on the freedom to try new things and fall in order to climb further.

Purpose

Connecting to the bigger picture is always an integral part of motivation. This is one of the key principles that I believe we must have to continue being engaged in anything we do. Once we lose the purpose, we will most definitely lose the motivation.

I think we will all question the purpose of what we’re doing at some point in time. It’s probably alot more common than we think, and we should acknowledge that. But that doesn’t mean we should leave it as that. When we find ourselves going through a ‘crisis’, always fall back to asking questions. Reflection on what you’ve done that has helped your personal growth and the company helps as well. What am I doing that the company will benefit from? What am I doing that will benefit my eventual vision? How can I continue to work on myself to help others in the long run? All these questions serve as guidelines to continuously keep yourself aligned with the purpose of whatever you are doing.

Often enough, we don’t spend enough thinking time on reflecting this aspect of our journey, a very much-needed exercise that we need to continue to push for in order to stay motivated. In such a fast-paced environment like ours, it’s often neglected and we realise that too late at times. I fell into the trap myself as well, but I am picking it up.

All in all, we’re humans and living in this new world is going to be a change that we have to deal with. But as long as we keep the main motivation in the forefront, hopefully, we’ll figure a way to still live :)