8 Ways To Maintain Motivation at Work Throughout Your Career

Career success and advancement often depends on your motivation to seek out new opportunities. Motivation is a key factor within your control that directly impacts the quality of your work and your overall professional journey. Learning how to encourage yourself to sustain a positive focus on your goals can make it easier to overcome challenges to achieve your plans.

In this article, we discuss how to maintain motivation in the workplace and why it's an important part of your professional life.

Why is motivation important in your career?

Motivation allows you to perform important work tasks with high quality and efficiency. This can give you a feeling of accomplishment as you complete each task and help you stand out to supervisors and managers for advancement opportunities. Keeping yourself motivated on the job is essential to ensure you continually improve and remain a productive team member within an organization. There are several benefits to becoming a persistent, self-motivated professional, including:

• Improved self-confidence: Individuals who are highly motivated know they can set high standards for themselves and accomplish their goals. Motivation is the quality that encourages you to do your best work to achieve your goals no matter your circumstances.

• Heightened sense of purpose: When you are motivated, you acknowledge a purpose for completing your work. This purpose encourages you to complete quality work more efficiently.

• Boosted ability to overcome challenges: Motivated individuals can also better overcome setbacks and challenges in the workplace because they can remain focused on their purpose. Motivated employees often work harder to ensure they complete important tasks and accomplish their goals.

• Increased long-term growth: Your professional goals may change as you accomplish goals throughout your career. Motivated employees continually reevaluate their current position to determine what they can do to contribute more to their company and accomplish their next objective.

Related: How To Get Motivated at Work

8 ways to maintain motivation at work

Many major career accomplishments take years to achieve. Maintaining a high motivation level throughout your work life is important to helping you reach those goals. Follow these steps to sustain a high level of motivation throughout your career:

1. Choose your goals wisely

Working toward the right goals is important to achieving a high motivation level and maintaining it. When you initially choose your goals, it is important to consider what you want to accomplish, why you want to accomplish the goal and which of your skills can help you achieve it. 

It's also important to weigh the pros and cons of each goal to ensure you're setting realistic expectations. Doing this early in your career can help you choose goals that you're more likely to remain committed to long-term. Writing down you goals in a physical notebook or on a notebook application on a smartphone helps you remember and commit to your plans. 

Related: Setting Goals To Improve Your Career

2. Know your purpose

You can stay motivated with an internal mission statement in mind. Knowing your purpose makes your goals much more achievable and motivates you to give your best effort to achieve smaller objectives within your main goals. Some parts of your career may act as bridges to help you gain experience so you can move on to fulfill bigger plans. 

Related: How To Write a Statement of Purpose

3. Remind yourself of your successes

Remind yourself of all your previous achievements if you find it challenging to maintain motivation in your work. Congratulations on small accomplishments can help you stay motivated to continue working towards larger, more challenging goals. Positive reinforcement of the goals you have achieved can help you reflect on what you have done in the past and create a repeatable process to achieve other goals.

Related: 35 Affirmations To Boost Your Confidence and Productivity

4. Surround yourself with supportive people

The connections you make with others are critical to maintaining your motivation throughout your career. Healthy, supportive relationships can help you maintain productivity and motivate you to strive toward your goals. Surrounding yourself with people who are supportive of your life and career can also help you stay motivated by celebrating your successes and reminding you how much you have accomplished if you begin to feel like you're losing motivation.

Related: 12 Types of Networking Connections (Plus Tips for Making Them)

5. Get creative

Sometimes the key to renewing your motivation is finding new ways to complete tasks or reworking your processes. Challenge yourself to do something new or out of your normal routine. This could be as simple as working in a different spot or making a playlist you listen to when you first arrive at work. Creativity becomes a motivator because you begin to think differently when you process unique ideas and change your perspective. 

Related: Your Guide to Improving Your Creativity at Work

6. Stay positive

When motivation becomes challenging, reflect on your thoughts. Instead of reminding yourself of what you find challenging, focus on the best parts of your role or the elements of your work that bring you the most joy. Practice gratitude by thinking about parts of your career journey you're thankful for, including areas you once viewed as difficulties but now see as part of your experience. 

Related: How To Bring Positivity to a Negative Work Environment

7. Reward yourself

Extrinsic motivation can also help you maintain your focus at work. Just as intrinsic rewards like celebrating your accomplishments help you feel good about yourself, working toward lunch at a favorite restaurant or a night out with work friends can give you the push you need to stay on task. Consider rewarding yourself when you meet a certain goal or objective. For example, you could decide that you might purchase the new pair of shoes you've admired when you complete your budget project. 

Related: Intrinsic Rewards: What They Are and Why They're Important

8. Take on a new role

Stay motivated by working toward something new in the workplace. This could take the form of a leadership position where you encourage other team members, or committing to a new project outside of your prior job responsibilities. Professional development can play a key role in helping you develop new abilities and discover areas where you can learn more. Consider earning a certification or completing additional education in your industry to advance your career and grow your skill set.