Stay Motivated at Work

Effective Ways to Stay Motivated at Work

When I mention the word NLP, an acronym for Neuro Linguistic Programming, it is often associated with motivation. In frustration, I correct the person I am speaking to and do my best to expand their understanding.

NLP works through filters of an individual’s mind, to have them transform in their work and life. It is much more than just motivation. So where does motivation fit in?

Motivation is synonymous with “values”. Our values are the reason we get up every morning and do what we do. Whatever I choose to do daily, I choose because I am fulfilling my values and getting something out of it.

As an example, even the way I sit fulfils the value of comfort. The reason I am a friend to someone and not another, is fulfilling the value of sharing, caring or love with that someone.

Most people think that there is only one way to feel motivated. But an NLP for work course will have you discover, that values drive our behaviour. We can either be motivated towards what we want or away from what we don’t want.

When a person is fulfilling their values, they stay motivated at work and display high performance in an organisation. If you are a team leader and one of your team members is dragging his feet, the arrow points straight to the fact that his job is not fulfilling his values.

This is how we address motivation head-on in NLP – through the unconscious mind where a flushing out of values to the surface, gives individuals a definite advantage. Not knowing values that drive you, could be like living life aimlessly with no direction.

If we take the value of “prosperity” for instance, an individual maybe motivated to work hard to achieve this value as he wants to buy a house, travel the world and provide for his family.

This is someone who is motivated towards what he wants. He would find it easy to stay motivated at work.

On the other hand, someone who is motivated “away from” prosperity, would be motivated very differently. He would display signs of stress and anxiety at work. Surprised?

Well their motivation is to run away from “not being poor”, quite opposite to the person who is motivated “towards” being prosperous. In NLP terms, the former person is creating their pictures, sounds and feelings as poor, where the latter is creating his 5 senses as rich.

So, by default, this individual would now feel they need a dose of stress management to address their anxiety at work. Turning around the representation of “poor” is the job of an NLP coach.

The idea is to re-direct the individual’s internal focus to being motivated “towards”, where representations of rich and prosperous drive towards goal achievement. How does one do this?

To the oblivion of most, these “away from” motivations have negative emotions that are stuck to them. Like glue, a person may have anger, sadness, fear or guilt from the past, that has not been resolved.

Hence a manager who has stress management skills from doing an NLP for work course, would know how to help a team member stay motivated at work. This is the magic of learning the technology of NLP.

Amazingly, when the negative emotions are released, a person’s “away from” re-adjusts to “towards” motivation. For the individual, it is like seeing life through different, more positive lenses.

Past participants have reported a feeling of “being able to breathe fully” or “feeling lighter”. This type of motivation is then sustainable and lasts for the longer term of a person’s life.

Incredibly so, there is a feeling that gravitates the individual towards a passion or purpose, which then leads to a driven propulsion. Once this state of mind clicks in, there is no conscious mind thought or attention needed to make it happen.

Like on auto pilot, the individual knows how to manoeuvre themselves towards a path that is pretty much aligned with their goals and bigger purpose. This is how we work on helping people stay motivated at work.

Interestingly, when an individual kicks-in to this level of operating, there is less or no need for stress management. Anxiety at work that may have previously plagued him, miraculously falls away.

So you see unlike conscious mind interventions that require a lot of thought and effort, an NLP for work course will save you loads of time and money, in the long run.

Diagnosis of the leverage point initially, to steer an individual’s focus to where they want to go, is the tipping point. Knowing where the internal switches are, that turn the lights on and off are key.

If you are suffering from any of these symptoms like anxiety at work, find yourself an NLP coach for not only will you feel better after the sessions, you will also have learnt something about how your internal-self works.

Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information.