Self Motivation – The Key to Productivity

Whether its athletes, musicians or high powered executives, from the outside it seems that the most successful people appear to have an inhuman ability to stay self motivated.

Douglas Walker and Steven Sorkin wrote a great book called "A-Ha! Performance, Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce." The authors claim that building and maintaining a self-motivated workforce is the single best way to improve company performance. They outline the eight Intrinsic Motivation Points (IMPs) that drive human performance and they show managers how they can use these IMPs to get their employees to increase motivation and productivity.

Managers can learn a lot from the book, but we entry-level folks can learn something too. We can learn that being self motivated, without any external help from our bosses and managers, will give us a big leg up on the competition. Here are a few things that help me stay motivated on a daily basis.

Create a schedule, but don't get too comfortable

I usually start work at 8 a.m., break for lunch around 12, head to the gym at 4 p.m. and get back to work until dinner. This schedule is great, but some days it just doesn't work.

Today I couldn't concentrate. I attempted to fix some of our financials with no luck, then I tried to write a post but nothing came to mind. From experience I know that trying to work when I'm not all there is just a waste of time. My productivity and quality of work drop dramatically. So I closed my computer at 1 p.m. and headed to the gym to sweat out the weekend. Now it's 8 p.m. and I'm sitting at a coffee shop making up for my lost work time.

Get some exercise

I love what I do, and I've admitted to being a workaholic, but if I didn't run on a daily basis my motivation and productivity would take a serious hit.

Studies show that aerobic exercise provides benefits including mood enhancements through the release of endorphins, and neruogenesis, the creation of new neurons in the brain. I'll admit, I'm not totally sure what this means, but I do know that during and immediately following a run, my creative juices are in high gear.

I've come up with the topic for almost every one of my posts while jogging, and my highest productivity point everyday is right after a good run. Whether it's running, lifting, basketball or tae bo, get some exercise everyday and your motivation to work is bound to increase.

Don't forget to sleep

The average American gets six hours of sleep per night. For most of us, that's just not sufficient. Strangely enough, you often hear successful people like Donald Trump and Condoleeza Rice being praised for surviving on next to no sleep. But don't be fooled, not all highly successful people forfeit sleep for success. According to Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief campaign advisor, Bill Clinton was famous for his afternoon naps. And Ronald Reagan was too.

When I worked at IBM I would typically get six hours of sleep. I figured after getting home from work I needed at least another six or seven hours to run errands, work out, read, and watch TV, so I went to sleep around 1 a.m. every night. These days I make it a priority to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep, and if possible, I get eight hours.

Needless to say, my productivity at IBM wasn't even close to what it is now. I often crashed after lunch and Monday mornings were especially difficult. Everyone's body is different when it comes to sleeping patterns, so figure out what works for you and be sure to get the necessary amount of sleep, you'll be amazed at the increase in energy level.

Managers should certainly take the advice from Walker and Sorkin's book and do everything they can to build and sustain a self motivated workforce, but in the mean time, us workers should do everything in our power to build and sustain our own self motivation.

Meet 3 Simple Networking Goals Everyday

Whenever I think about networking, the first thing that comes to mind is reaching out to the big people who can help shape my life in big ways. It's probably the way most people think about networking. Which makes sense, the bigger picture usually comes first. But it isn't the only way we should be thinking about how we network.

Another great way to think about networking is how we interact with the people we already know and have established a semi-trusted bond with. I like to think of this as network maintenance. And the best way to make it work is to set up daily networking goals.

Sure, things are usually not as structured as they look when you write them down on paper, but being aware of what you want to accomplish in any given day is enough to keep yourself moving in the right direction.

'Check in' with one person

"Just checking in" is a great way to remind someone that your connection is important. There's so many ways to do it too. So if you're an introvert, you don't need to worry about picking up a phone or setting up a coffee date to make it work.

While checking in is usually just a way to remind someone else that you're still around, it can sometimes trigger some great opportunities for collaboration. A long-lost fraternity brother contacted Healy and I a few weeks ago just to catch up. Now he wants to get involved and write some posts on Employee Evolution.

Call one person who can use your help

The other day I talked to Ray Jarosz, a contributor at Employee Evolution and fellow entrepreneur. He needed some advice on how to work effectively in a startup when a major team member is older than you are. Considering my experience with Penelope and Brazen Careerist, I knew I could provide some worthwhile advice.

So what did this opportunity to help a fellow peer offer me? Besides that fuzzy feeling you get when you do something nice, nothing immediate. But who knows when I'm going to need to call on Ray for some advice in his realm of expertise?

Call one person who can help you

Last week, I talked with two very popular recruiting bloggers, the Recruiting Animal and Jim Stroud. I had been impressed by a few podcasts they ran, so I wanted to get some advice on starting my own.

Not only do they give great advice, but they're both really nice guys. Sometimes you never know what a blogger is really like until you pick up the phone.

But what was really great about making the connection was that both now send me follow up emails when they come across something that might interest me. Without taking the time to reach out and ask for help, I would have never established these connections.

Millennials Are Civic, Not Idealistic

What do George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt all have in common?

If you guessed they were all great presidents, you'd be right. But there's more. According to an article in the Washington Post, (which I believe is citing Strausse and Howe's Generations book) each of these presidents presided when a "civic" generation was coming of age.

The Washington Post says that about every 80 years in American history, "a civic generation emerges to make over the country after a period of upheaval caused by the fervor of an idealist generation."

Idealist generations, on the other hand, typically create very divisive times. The baby boomers were an idealist generation, obviously (and often angrily) splitting the country between traditionalists (conservatives) and progressives (liberals).

Millennials are the next "civic" generation. Our fights and causes will be not to tear down established systems like the federal government and big business. Rather, we will strive to fix, repair and rebuild these broken systems, because history shows that the systems do work – if properly designed.

And we're already making some headway. Take Super Tuesday for instance. Three million Millennials cast their ballots in the primaries.

But young people don't vote! This is what people have been saying for years. Apparently what they should say is that young people didn't vote until the Millennials came along.

Look closer and you'll notice that we're starting to push for change in corporate America. In fact, companies are almost scared of our generation. Consultants teach companies how to deal with us crazy young folks, 60 Minutes airs propaganda segments that warn, "Here Come the Millennials,"and women like Jean Twenge swear we will be the downfall of all things sacred.

They're worried that Millennials are hopping jobs, starting businesses, and searching for meaning and passion instead of just blindly conforming to the ideals of past generations. They don't understand that it's not about being lazy, pampered, or entitled. History says our destiny is to be the next great generation, a generation of builders and doers.

Millennials aren't revolting in the streets or marching on Washington, as Thomas Friedman suggests we should. We know that doesn't actually accomplish anything by itself. What Millennials are really all about is improving broken systems and unifying unnecessary divisions. The best way to do that is by working within the system and doing, not by dropping out and making a lot of noise.

By using our political power to vote and by not settling for a meaningless job just because it pays well, we are making a lot more noise than all the screaming, yelling and protesting in the world ever could.

Want to Engage Gen-Y? Stop Planning and Start Doing

The biggest lesson that I've learned since launching Employee Evolution and starting a company is to stop planning and start doing. For the past five months, we've been planning the launch of Brazen Careerist. We've gone through a pre-launch redesign and a hundred new ideas that were sure to be great for our audience.

Now, we're finally at the point where we are very close to launch, and guess what? We eliminated 99 of those great ideas to focus on the best one. The funny thing is, the best idea is the same one we started with, a blog network.

I thought we were wasting a lot of time planning when we could have been executing, and truthfully, I was really frustrated, I wanted to take action. But now I can see we were executing the whole time. We weren't just talking about it, we actually acted on many of those ideas. All things considered, we've moved pretty quickly for a small start up with limited resources.

The point here is that you can plan all you want. You can question whether or not you should start that blog or if you should send your resume to that company. You can go back and forth redesigning your website to make it perfect before launch, and you can sit through hours of pointless meetings to determine the best course of action. Or, you can just do it and see what happens.

These days, the people who act and then react are the ones who get ahead. Successful entrepreneurs have quickly learned this, and Millennials seem to intuitively understand it. This is why executive summaries have replaced detailed business plans. This is why most new companies start with little idea of what they are actually going to do. And this is why Corporate America is out of sync with Generation-Y.

We're ready to act, we get frustrated when we can't. We're ready to get so much done and be so productive that we move up the ladder faster than anyone in the history of the organization.

Established companies seem pretty content to waste time arguing pros and cons in meetings, passing ideas up the chain of command, creating strategic plans, and perfecting their big picture vision. It's one thing to realize you're moving too slow and learn from your mistakes, but to keep running in circles is just counterproductive.

No wonder we're changing jobs every 18 months, starting side projects, or ditching the corporate world all together. It's just our way of saying, "I'm not waiting around anymore. I'm going to do something."

When companies finally get with the times, stop all the planning, decentralize, and actually change rather than talk about change, maybe they will begin to keep their employees around for a few years. But if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath.

3 Simple Ways to Mentally Fight Off Fear

As a twenty-something, fear is not just another four-lettered word. It's been a part of my life since I accepted my college diploma with the realization that I'm finally my own man. It's something that plays a factor in most of the decisions I make. And that sucks, because life would be a lot easier if we didn't have to think about negative outcomes.

But let's face it, you can be the most courageously bold S.O.B. in the game and there will still be something out there that keeps you up at night. The difference is the bold ones know how to get a grip. And that's important, because if you don't, you'll end up letting fear devour your life.

When fear reveals its ugly head, I reflect on how important my goals are and I arm myself mentally, the best way I know how.

Learn to Accept Reality

People get fired, people get dumped, people get sick and people die. Life is full of failures that we can't avoid. They just happen. So to think about failure ahead of time – if it even happens – is pointless.

"Many of the changes in our lives, our society and environment are beyond our control," says Gail Caissy, author of Unlock the Fear. "When change comes into our lives and there is nothing we can do about it, we have to accept it and learn to live with it."

Prepare yourself for life's inevitable failures, but never let them stop you. And always have an exit strategy.

Educate Yourself the Best You Can

The initial onset of fear can be totally irrational. More often than not, we bring ourselves to a state of anxiety before we even realize that there's nothing to be afraid of in the first place.

Before I joined Brazen Careerist, Inc. I was scared about a lot of things. Mostly about how I was going to survive without a steady paycheck if things didn't go the way we planned. I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of answers that made me feel better about taking the leap.

Then again, some of the answers were things I didn't want to hear — like that failure was a possibility. But even educating yourself on the negative outcomes can build up your strength to move forward.

Some quality knowledge can make a big difference in combating your fear. Make a list of the things you are afraid of, and in your spare time, do a little research to gain an edge over the idle behavior that being afraid tends to induce.

Discipline Your Mind

Fear is a product of your imagination. It occurs when we imagine the ill-fated futures that we'd hate to see become a reality. Conquering this psychological dilemma takes an enormous amount of mental authority.

Dr. Don Greene, author of Fight You Fear and Win, says that in order to overcome fear you need to alter you impulses. "Act on desire," he says, "rather than allow fear of failure or fear of the unknown to paralyze you."

The way I see it, there's two options. You can either think up a more joyful future or you can choose to forget about the future all together and live in the now.

I tend to steer clear of the "Cinderella" mentality. Dreaming up a fantasy world never solved anything. Instead, focus on the present. Consider all of the elements you need to accomplish in order to be a success. Then concentrate on execution.