Ah, it’s the office Christmas party time and everyone is gearing up for the festive celebrations. Is your company, and are you?

 I read a great article in the Telegraph about ‘The dos and don’ts of the office Christmas party’ on 4th December and if you read it, you may well have experienced some of the issues it lists. (And that clip of David Brent’s from ‘The Office’ is legendary!).

The Christmas party is always great, but the question I always ask is how staff motivation levels are at this time of year? Are people running on slow as they wind-down, or are they running to full capacity? Achieving things can be hard, particularly if people are feeling unmotivated.

But it doesn’t have to be that way – we all feel down at certain times. So the choice is to sit back and wait for someone to fix it (unlikely) or decide to DO something about it!

Making a change is a positive action, rather than staying stuck in a rut.

Help yourself and your colleagues to get and stay motivated by following these 5 quick and easy tips:-

1.One Key Goal

Knowing where you’re heading allows you to steer a clear path and achieve your goal. Start at the end and work back. A goal gives you a direction to focus on.

One Key Goal: Whenever we fall into a slump, it’s often because we have too much going on in our lives. We’re trying to do too much and it saps our energy and motivation.

It’s the number one mistake that people make. They try to take on too much, try to accomplish too many goals at once.

You simply cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you’re trying to do two or more goals at once. You have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely. You can always do your other goals when you’ve accomplished your One Key Goal.

2.Be realistic

People often give up on their plans because their expectations are too high. There’s no harm in thinking big, though recognise that geeing big results will take time and be hard work.

Don’t be discouraged but do be realistic about what you can achieve in the short-term. Make a list of these and tick them off as you go.

3.Stay on track

Checking your progress helps you to see how you’re getting on and enables you to make adjustments if needed, helping you to reach your goal.

Think about it daily. If you think about your goal every day, it’s much more likely to become true. To this end, posting the goal on your computer desktop helps a lot.

Sending yourself daily reminders also helps. And if you can commit to doing one small thing to further your goal (even just 5 minutes) every single day, your goal will almost certainly come true.

4.Ask for support

Going to people you know and trust can help you greatly. You already know each other well so there are no barriers to overcome. Forget trying to go it alone. There’s no need to be such a hero (or victim). Ask for help!

Join an on online forum. Get a partner to join you. Network. Call your dad. It doesn’t matter who, just tell them your problems, and simply talking about it will help. Ask them to get you back on track. It works!

5.Ride the ebb and flow

Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide.

But realise that while it may go away, it doesn’t do so permanently, it will come back. Just stick it out and wait for that motivation to return. In the meantime, refocus on your goal, ask for help (see tip 4) and work on some of the other tips listed here until your motivation comes back full force.

Think of your goal as a marathon not a sprint and your slump is just one little bump in the road. You can’t give up with every little bump. Stay with it for the long term, ride out the ebbs and surf on the flows, and you WILL get there!

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