AMiable Solution #217: Ready for Round 1?

Not all new year’s resolutions focus on improving financial or physical health.  In fact, we think maybe the more important ones focus on something greater and more influential: mental health. 

Although your professional success and failure certainly depends on pre-existing factors--your budget, your resources, and your marketing plans--it also depends your attitude.  You may not be satisfied with your 2016 marketing results.  You may not be satisfied with your work situation.  But you can improve your performance and your outlook with a few motivational tips from an unlikely place: the boxing community.

Peter Murphy, a peak performance expert, identified a dozen tools to help people become achievers in his Boxingscene.com article, “12 Powerful Motivational Tools That Guarantee Success.”  We think a few of them work well in the marketing world, too.

1.      Recognize obstacles and learn to remove them.  Getting tripped-up while you’re in the zone can not only kill your momentum, but it can also crush your motivation and drive, especially if it happens round after round.  If you’re stopped in your tracks by inefficient processes, slow responses from co-workers, or a lack of the proper tools, learn to build extra time into your schedule. Find ways to improve hang-ups.  Or figure out how to incorporate updated resources into your budget.  Don’t let obstacles through you for a loop.

2.      Finish what you start.  Sometimes you have to see a project through: you have a deadline, you have a schedule, you have responsibilities.  But sometimes you start down a road on your own.  Maybe you’re exploring a new idea.  Maybe you’re researching a new market that no one else has thought of.  Even if things don’t go well or you start to question your project’s viability, see it through.  Learn from it.  As Murphy says, “an unfinished project is of no value.”

3.      Change bad habits and focus on your specific goals.  What slows you down or distracts you from your tasks?  Would your work improve if cut out your morning chats in the break room?  Could you get more done if you arrived 10 minutes early or checked personal emails and messages on your phone only at lunch?  Think about the tasks you need to accomplish each day and eliminate the sidesteps and misdirections that keep you from achieving them.

Improving and maintaining your motivation takes regular exercise and focus.  But with a little commitment and dedication, you can make 2017 a knockout year.