Stay Alive — Why and How to Get Motivated
Stay Alive — Why and How to Get Motivated
This is an article of work ethics written to encourage my dear young colleague and remind myself of loving what we do.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. — Steve Jobs
What good is it to live each day without a sense of purpose? For all ‘uninteresting’ things that we do now, we must give passion, even if we cannot see the benefit of doing so. That is because we don’t know how the dots will connect in the future. However, they will never do, if we don’t even take heart in living, in doing what we are doing now, right at this second.
If we embrace the mindset and belief from 《敬業與樂業》* , which is ‘any work should be respected and fully engaged in doing it’, even for work that doesn’t interest us, we would still pour our dedication and love into it without hesitation. As long as we practice Respect Work (敬業) to stay passionate, we open the door welcoming the dots to connect.
*《敬業與樂業》 is a classic Chinese speech by 梁啓超 (Liang Qi Chao) that is literally translated to ‘Respect Work (敬業) and Enjoy Work (樂業)’.
“If it’s something you really are interested in, you’ll quickly build the momentum to complete it in no time at all.” — Neil Patel
Even if we aren’t interested in our work to build such momentum, our Respect Work attitude (敬業) will automagically build it.
Besides, we may also rely on techniques to trick our minds to work more enthusiastically, such as these five:
Make good use of deadlines to better us. When we almost get to the end of something, we often work harder as there might not be another chance to.
Create a task list and allocate dedicated time slots within our schedule for each task. Once these arrangements are made, we will have the desire and urge to finish it, to get it off our chest.
Break down tasks into even more swallowable chunks. We have a tendency to be lazy. If a task looks too hard, we might lose the energy to do it. (Nothing is hard. It just ‘looks’ so.) Build momentum by starting with the easiest of the chunks.
Do not multitask. Do not distract easily over other tasks (unless the other task is very small for really quick completion.)
Unless absolutely necessary, do not promise to work on a new task immediately; instead, postpone it (politely). There, we have a new deadline to motivate us to finish the current task more eagerly.
It is important that we stay enthusiastic for good things to come, e.g. inspiration. As we work hard on something, our geniuses inside will come out of a sudden. During such moment of clarity, we shall ride on the amazing power and let the tremendous passion guide us to our dream.
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison
So, let’s embrace Respect Work (敬業) and make use of techniques. The end goal is to convince our minds to love what we do to live each day purposefully and fruitfully.
Stay alive!