Expand your notion of successful action

If positive outcomes aren’t accumulating fast enough to provide you with sufficient motivation, then you have two options.

Either double down and work harder, or change the definition of what you would consider to be a positive outcome.

My recommendation is to do the latter.

Because pushing harder isn’t always the right answer. Rather than burning yourself out by trying to meet your own ridiculously high standards, you can try expanding your notion of successful action.

You can make victory more accessible by becoming more inclusive, uplifting and compassionate towards your efforts.

This is why the victory log is such a powerful tool. Keeping a small weekly calendar that you populate with any and all successes, large or small, that you achieve each day, does wonders for your motivation.

By forcing yourself to identify significant things about your work that make you feel proud and content, you can’t help but feel more energized. The how momentum works. It’s piecemeal. You train yourself to find grounding in small, manageable increments.

And as long as you’re grateful for every of chunk of progress as a rung on your ladder, the climb continues.

How are you expanding your notion of action? What are some new definitions you could create to make the language of success adjust to your rhythm?

One of my clients used to struggle with this issue. Despite the multiple successes under her belt as a brand manager at a large retail company, she still faced regular moments of feeling insecure and unmotivated with her work.

The tool that ended up helping her was called shelving. She began converting her workspace into a progress rich environment. One that used her proven track record as a marketer to help stimulate focus and motivation.

And so, every successful project she ever worked on became its own artifact. She decorated her desk, walls and surfaces with past victories. That raised her baseline of creative worthiness to a more workable level.

Because what better way to remind yourself who you are than looking at finished work that you’re proud of?

Amazon encourages all of their employees to do the same. It’s embedded in their culture. Leaders encourage team members to remember the early days through personal imagery. Employees create their own visual cues, incorporating parts of their history into things they use every day.

Not unlike the victory log, this shelving tool emotionally reinvigorate you each time you sat down to work.

Next time positive outcomes aren’t accumulating fast enough to provide you with sufficient motivation, remind yourself how far you’ve come.

Expand your notion of successful action. And momentum won’t be far away.

How will you raise your baseline of creative worthiness to a more workable level?