MOTIVATING PEOPLE

Staying Motivated After aMajor Achievementby Ron Friedman

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

In 1993, after leading his country to an Olympic gold medal, winning his third NBA

championship, and scoring more points than any player in the league for a seventh

consecutive season, Michael Jordan announced his retirement from basketball. He was 30

years old.

I just needed to change, Jordan would later recount. The regular season was just weeks

away and he was nding it impossible to get motivated. I was getting tired of the same old

activity and routine and I didnt feel all the same appreciation that I had felt before and it

was tiresome.

Jordans sentiments were recently echoed by another prominent high achiever. In a

November interview with NPRs Terry Gross, Jon Stewart made the following remark about

returning to the routine of The Daily Show after directing his rst lm. I dont know that

there will ever be anything that I will ever be as well suited for as this show, said Stewart,

whose contract to host the show expires later this year. That being said, I think there are

moments when you realize that thats not enough anymore, or that maybe its time for

some discomfort.

Many of us have experienced some of the same feelings after completing a major project, or

winning a big sale, or making a crucial presentation to the board. For months or weeks you

were ruthlessly focused on a single, herculean undertaking. And then inevitably, that

assignment is done.

When we think about achieving a major goal, we picture the exhilaration of reaching new

heights. What we often fail to anticipate, however, is that once weve scaled that mountain,

it can be surprisingly chilly on the other side. After a period of massive productivity we

have to revert back to life as usual and settle back into an established workplace routine.

Its a lot harder than it looks.

For one thing, its because of the emotional letdown of going from an exciting, challenging,

or pressure-lled situation to one thats considerably less demanding. High-stress

situations and the adrenaline rush they produce can be addictive. When the constant sense

of urgency weve adapted to comes to an abrupt halt, we experience withdrawal.

In many cases, reverting back to a predictable routine also means the work is no longer as

stimulating. To be fully engaged, we need to experience an ongoing sense of growth on the

job. At no point is the gap between rapid learning and intolerable stagnation more

prominent than after a period of intense professional development.

But perhaps the biggest reason we have a hard time motivating ourselves after a major

success is that we fail to recognize the symptoms of burnout.

Mastering new challenges involves an outpouring of mental, emotional, and physical

eort. Sustaining that eort over an extended period of time depletes your energy. Burnout

can happen when the amount of energy required consistently exceeds the amount of

energy you have available.

But heres the thing we often miss: unlike exhaustion, burnout can be surprisingly hard to

detect. You wont nd any glaring markers. The symptoms are subtle. You might notice

yourself taking a few extra minutes in the morning to get out of bed. Or delaying important

decisions. Or feeling a bit more cynical about your job.

Even mental health experts whose job it is to identify these symptoms struggle recognizing

their own burnout. In part, its because of this unfortunate fact: burnout damages your

ability to recognize the symptoms of burnout.

Were all susceptible to burnout, especially in the wake of tackling dicult challenges. That

doesnt mean, however, that ineciency, cynicism, and procrastination must necessarily

follow every major success. Here are some adjustments worth considering the next time

you transition from a big win back to your normal routine.

Recognize that your job is about to get more dicult. A common mistake we make after

succeeding at a major challenge is having unrealistic expectations about the work that

follows. After a major outpouring of eort, your energy stock is likely to be depleted, which

makes it hard to maintain your concentration. Tasks that may have required little exertion

in the past suddenly demand a lot more of you. Adjusting your expectations is important

because it helps minimize the self-blame that often accompanies and exacerbates burnout.

Separate thinking from doing. If your job is like most, its rare for you to have the

opportunity to savor your successes for very long. In fact, theres probably an enormous

backlog of work that accumulated while you were seeing your project out the door, because

the rest of your job didnt stand still during that time.

While you may feel tempted to immediately dive in, doing so is generally not in your best

interest. When were depleted we nd it harder to distinguish tasks that are important from

those that simply feel urgent. Its at this point that were at our most vulnerable to doing

busywork.

Carve out a few hours outside of the oce to list, clarify, and prioritize your tasks. A

focused strategy session will help declutter your mind and ensure that you devote the

limited energy you have to activities that have value. The sense of direction is itself

energizing, while preventing you from falling prey to easily-accomplishable tasks with

limited worth.

Unapologetically restock your energy. To achieve top performance the human body

requires periods of recovery. Laboring when our physical and cognitive resources are

depleted yields low quality work and makes engagement more dicult.

When taking extended time o after a big win is not an option, integrating recovery into

your day is especially valuable. Schedule intermissions onto your calendar and use them to

take a walk. Have lunch away from your computer. For a few days, turn o your work email

after hours, or better yet, when you arrive home, leave your phone in a dierent room.

What should you do at home to replenish your energy? A 2014 Journal of Occupation

Health Psychology article oers clues. Within the study, psychologists compared how

dierent after-work activities aect employees recovery from burnout. While many of us

assume that passive, relaxing activities are best, researchers found evidence that engaging

in exercise and social interaction can be even more revitalizing.

The lesson: slowing down isnt the only way of lling up your tank. Sometimes renewal

requires accelerating in a dierent direction. Instead of just ipping on the TV and vegging

out, consider calling your friends and suggesting a game of tennis.

Find your next mastery goal. To be at our most engaged, we require experiences that grow

our competence. Leadership consultant Jim Collins argues that organizations need a big

hairy audacious goal to achieve great things. The same can be said for employees.

If youre aiming to perform at your best, you need something new to be excited about.

Building time into your routine to explore new ideas, for example, by reading before work

or setting aside 15 minutes after lunch to review industry blogs, helps foster a sense of

growth even when the tasks youre working on are predictable.

Another method of growing on the job: mentoring. We tend to think of mentoring as a

means of educating others and improving their performance. But new studies indicate that

in many cases, its the mentor who reaps the greatest benet, especially when it comes to

mitigating perceptions of having reached a career plateau.

How does mentoring help? Research suggests mentoring prevents job monotony and

enhances the way we look at our jobs. It contributes to the perceived meaning we derive

from our work. In so doing, mentoring helps us nd growth in new ways, mitigating

emotional exhaustion.

Ultimately, how you approach your work in the days and weeks following a big win can be

just as critical to your long-term success as the achievement itself. By anticipating and

proactively addressing a depleted mental and physical state, youre more apt to turn an

isolated victory into a consistent winning streak.

Ron Friedman, Ph.D. is the founder of ignite80, a consulting rm that helps leaders build thrivingorganizations, and the author of the forthcoming book, The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating

an Extraordinary Workplace. Connect with him @ronfriedman. To receive an email when he posts, click here.

Related Topics: STRESS | PSYCHOLOGY

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Manali Shah 3 months ago

Motivation helps to accomplish goals, and its necessary for all types of success. You need motivation inhuge doses and you need it daily. An environment which i have in my company Synechron is such thatawakens enthusiasm and makes one feel motivated. Also I agree with the above article that yes mentoringdoes help to grow and improve faster. Thanks for sharing.

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