Develop Work Habits ep 22 : Taking Action

Do habits really make a difference? Can habits bring change to one’s career? There is a reason why successful people have turned out the way they did. They have discipline, confidence and passion. They have also developed the right habits. There are some habits you can use to be successful as well. 

There is a saying that knowledge is power. Knowledge is important but knowledge without the right action is meaningless.  If you really want to succeed, you are going to have to put time and effort to achieve goals. You need to take action.     

Motivation is the fuel that keeps us going. Motivation is describes as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way. Motivation requires some reinforcing aspect to guide our behaviour.  But there are days when you just feel unmotivated. There are plenty of ways you can motivate yourself to finish your tasks for the day, tasks that will help you get closer to whatever goals you’ve set for yourself. 

Have you ever fallen behind on a project or work related task? You may feel stressed and anxious if there is a deadline approaching and the work may not be completed. When you are faced with a large project with several tasks to complete, it is vital that you stayon time or ahead of schedule when completing each stage or task of the project. If you fall behind it may be more challenging to complete it. This could negatively impact the work overall.

The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is credited to have said “”All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” Sometimes we have to take a break from work and projects to give ourselves time to recharge. Many people get the idea that performing their best work on projects and tasks requires them to work non-stop on it, outside of possibly a quick bite to eat and maybe sleeping for a few hours. However, employing such a practice in completing your projects and tasks will likely lead to lower-quality work and damage your profitability, credibility, and reputation.

We get so caught up in aspects of our daily lives that we forget the importance of maintaining ourselves. One of those areas is work. Many tend to think that our work comes before ourselves and our own well being.   Most people who hear the term “hard worker” or “great worker,” they automatically think that they have to be an “all-out” worker who is always working, always making the sacrifice of other things in order to be working to get that recognition.   But hard workers or great workers are those that know how to balance work with other aspects of their life.  

In virtually any line of work, you have distractions that you must overcome. A stay at home worker or entrepreneur will especially have distractions that they will have to overcome. Some of these distractions are ones that you cannot control, but still must find a way to overcome them.

If you are an employee you face distractions. Phones ring, email pops up and other people are talking. If you have a home office it may be kids screaming, neighbors dogs barking or other things.  In virtually any line of work, you have distractions that you must overcome. An entrepreneur will especially have distractions that they will have to overcome. Some of these distractions are ones you can definitely control. 

Work is a four letter word. That is how many people see it. Work can be a source of drudgery and misery. Waking up Monday morning having to prepare for another day in the proverbial salt mines. On top of this is the expectation for the work to be thorough and efficient.  In order to succeed in today’s fast-paced, content-driven world, you need to be efficient at creating high-quality work, information, and products. This means that you can’t be taking longer than is necessary to complete tasks and projects at a high quality level.  One answer may be to make work fun. Make work fun by challenging yourself.

Many aspects of careers today are results oriented. You may have seen sales professionals with certain milestones that determine success. There are daily deadlines and tasks that need to be completed with work. But one thing that can make time and quality lag is self doubt in one’s abilities.  When many people take on a major project that lasts days, weeks, or even months, they have a tendency to take their time throughout the project, thinking that they must slow down their work in order to complete it at a high level. They doubt their own ability to work at a quick pace and still complete that work at a high level.