Motivation in the Workplace – How to Find a Job that Inspires You

Learning how to stay motivated at work is one of the biggest challenges you can face as you begin your career, perhaps only matched by the challenge of funding a job that’s right for you.

Here at Career Navig8r, it’s no secret that we want to help people build careers they love and the first step towards doing that is finding a job that inspires them.

So let’s talk about finding that perfect entry-level role, what to do if you’re stuck in a career you don’t love, and why you don’t have to settle for a dead-end job.

Priorities & Expectations

Perhaps you know what you want to do. Perhaps you’ve always known but you just can’t find the right way into it. On the other hand, perhaps you’ve not got a clue and all you know is that you’re tired of working a job you don’t enjoy.

Wherever you fall on this spectrum, the first task is simple. You have to decide what your priorities are.

For some people, the most important part of a job is that it’s stimulating. They want to spend their day feeling interested and engaged. For others, that would be a nightmare. Plenty of people would rather do their work on auto-pilot, saving their real energy for when they’re at home.

It’s worth noting that most people fall somewhere in the middle. Or, to put it simply, most people are happy to do challenging and complicated work if it’s something they enjoy.

Understanding that priority is crucial to understanding what you want to get out of a work/life balance. Are you okay with your job being all about the money? Do you need your career to be more than that?

Once you know what you want out of a job, now’s the time to set your expectations. Try to take an honest eye towards what’s achievable. While it helps to be realistic, remember that it’s easy to set the bar too low and achieving your dreams might not be as impossible as you think.

If you don’t know how someone gets into the job you want, then don’t assume it’s impossible. Do the research and find out for yourself.

Making Opportunities For Yourself

A lot of the time, when we think about a career path, we think about a sort of default template. You get the qualifications, you apply for the jobs, you join a company and you slowly move into more senior roles over the course of several decades.

Some successful careers do go like that. Many do not. Speak to almost anyone who’s had a successful career and you’ll find that it wasn’t a linear progression – even if it sometimes looks like one when you squint. Sometimes people find ways to jump several roles on the ladder, or else they have to backtrack and move into a different field, retraining in the process.

Perhaps one of the most vital things people overlook is the importance of independence. You don’t have to work for a company. You don’t have to apply for specific jobs.

For example, if you want to work in a high level marketing role, then you absolutely could take the normal route. You could also develop and sell a product, doing all the marketing yourself and building a successful company. If you can prove you’ve done it once, then you’d be amazed how willing companies are to hire you, independently of how qualified you officially are.

That might sound easier said than done and we’re certainly not trying to suggest that starting a company is an easy option – let alone that there’s ever a guarantee of success. What we are trying to say is that, no matter how much it might not seem like it, you always have a choice and, with the right mindset, it’s more than possible to make your own luck.

Don’t Settle For Less

It’s easy to think of your job as just another responsibility – another task on the list of things that need to be done each day. If you’re not motivated, then the solution is just to do it anyway.

That mindset might sound normal but over time it’s just not healthy. A good career is one that brings you joy, one that inspires you to work hard, not because you need to but because you really want to.

All in all, learning how to find a career you love can take time and it can mean working through a lot of jobs you hate, but if there’s one thing to remember it’s that that work is worth it in the long run because there’s nothing more satisfying than doing a job you love.