WORK IN PROGRESS
THE Personal Effectiveness E-zine
Vol. VII, Issue 17, October, 2003 ><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>
Staying Enthused!
Most of us are familiar with the excitement of a new project, a new idea. It seems to have so much promise, we look at it so eagerly, we feel so energized! But... so often, what happens? Somewhere along the line, the glory fades. The obstacles seem to have grown, while the pay-offs seem less important. The work gets behind schedule. When a team is involved, dissension often sets in. Ways to do things become an issue, power struggles and turf battles emerge. For an individual, oddly enough, there are still turf battles, though we usually call them "prioritization issues." The battle is over what is most important to us, with different areas of our life fighting for priority.
Suddenly, what seemed so clear, so easy, so rewarding becomes just another "should," another task looming over our heads, and another energy drain.
What to do? Whether we are dealing with a major project involving many people and a period of months or years, or whether we are dealing with our own personal plans and intentions, there are similar effects, and we need to understand and acknowledge IN ADVANCE that these low-energy times will come.
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, one of the original collectors and disseminators of ancient wisdom from many cultures (from whose movement have descended EST, The Forum, and many more personal development organizations, including much of the background of coach training) , maintained that all energy streams have their weak points. He equated the energy of projects to the musical scale, and said that the weak points are the equivalent of the two points in any octave where the scale jumps only a half a note rather than a whole note. On the piano, in the scale of C, this would be the two points where there are two white keys together with no black key between them. At these points, he said, there is an almost inevitable falling away of energy, and it is therefore at these points that an influx of external energy is needed.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to predict where in a project these points will come. However, it is not a bad idea to think ahead, to accept that they will come, and to have something planned that will have the effect of jump-starting the energy.
Most of this piece concerns each individual, for a team is made up of individuals, with some comments about keeping teams enthused following at the end.
There can be ongoing actions that can keep us stirred up and eager. The old cliche of providing visual reminders of what success will look like is indeed an old cliche, just because it works. Because it works we keep bringing it back. What does success look like? Find a way to depict that, either with a picture, a collage, or a letter to yourself written early on while you are still on fire with a project.
Celebrating small steps is another way to keep energy going. If a project is huge and lengthy, progress can seem incredibly small if one does not break it up into small steps. For example, the idea of achieving a graduate degree when one is early on in one's education may stretch like an unending, burdensome journey. However, celebrating the end of every term or semester as another rung on the ladder successfully climbed can help to break up the journey into chunks each of which can be handled.
Journaling, provided we look on the bright side as well as address problem areas, can be helpful to record thoughts, aspirations, mistakes, and lessons learned along the way.
Frequently, much of the downturn in enthusiasm relates to burn-out, so the self-care that is essential in high burn-out careers can also be essential in high energy, long-term projects. In this context, burning the midnight oil occasionally, when creativity and energy are flying high, may be fine, but doing it on a regular basis almost guarantees disaster. Regular sound sleep is essential. Healthy eating that avoids the intense highs and lows of sugar- and caffeine-intense intake helps the body to remain on an even keel. Exercise re-energizes us in the long run, even if it leads us physically tired in the short term.
Avoid the nay-sayers. They can come in several forms. On a team they may be those who consistently doubt the abilities or the motives of the project leaders. For yourself, they may be those who see the glass as always half (or more) empty, who refuse to see the rainbow because they are too busy talking about the rain or the clouds, and who just love to play "ain't it awful" no matter what the topic of conversation may be. There are the others who prefer the status quo and don't want you to change things by achieving whatever you are seeking. Stay out of hearing range or they will all sow the seeds of doubt and despair in your heart.
Even your own self-talk needs discipline. Avoid the all-or-nothing thoughts that arise whenever a glitch is encountered. A mis-step is not necessarily total failure. It may simply be an opportunity to learn something new and different or to backtrack a little.
Lastly, clear the decks. Avoid cluttering your office, your desk, your kitchen table, or your mind with "stuff" that contributes nothing to your central goals. (And if you have wondered why Work in Progress is late this month, it is because I lately ignored this lesson myself!)
Teams
It may seem counter intuitive to involve someone from outside - an outside speaker, someone to lead a retreat, a day of rest and recreation - just at a time when the instinct of many leaders is to push harder, to wield the whip of "shoulds" and "musts" and deadlines, whether on oneself or on others. Yet it often happens that just such a break can give those involved a reframed perspective, an inspiration, that provides exactly the influx of energy needed to increase the project's velocity.
Earlier in this piece I referred to the development of something to remind oneself of what success at a project would look like. In the case of teams, it is not a bad idea to have team members do this at the start of the project, while enthusiasm is high. This may seem too "touchy feely" for some, but to have team members articulate, and perhaps depict what they see as the results of success for them, can have long-standing results. Some leaders might ask team members to write their thoughts about success of the project, and what it will mean to them, and to put them in a self-addressed envelope which the leader will mail to them at a time when the energy influx seems needed. Others might suggest personal graphic designs, or collages, depicting what success means to each individual. These can be posted in the individual offices, or sent home for a place on the refrigerator, depending on the tone and atmosphere of the organization. For truly huge projects some organizations will promise trips, or other bells and whistles, for their most valuable players, and will scatter reminders about these prizes around the facility.
(There can be a danger here, because of the possibility that such extrinsic motivators can undermine the true intrinsic motivation that individuals already have for the project, a topic of great complexity. I will not present the research data etc - largely by human motivation guru Ed Deci of the University of Rochester and his many associates - here, let me just point to baseball. Consider the youth who practices joyously, who considers playing the game to be his ultimate goal and pleasure. Consider him when he has been a professional for a few years. Consider him going on strike for more money. What happened to playing for the joy of it? What happened to the intrinsic motivation that kept him practicing every evening until dark, just because he loved to play? Research suggests that, once he was rewarded by an extrinsic reward, in this case money, he slowly began to perceive that he was playing for the money - extrinsic, instead of playing for the joy - intrinsic. The extrinsic has undermined the intrinsic. This is the danger of too much emphasis on rewards.*)
Remember that each member of your team is a living, breathing person with a life outside of whatever project they are currently working on with you. They have lives and loved-ones who must not be neglected. (If you think that the price of insisting that team members take time for themselves is too high, you obviously have never had to pay the price of having a team member's personal life go belly-up in the middle of a project!)
Lastly, whatever you can do to preserve that initial enthusiasm, to help it to be preserved in the memories of all those who are involved, do it!
(* For more information about research in the area of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards, visit
http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/publications/pub_exp.html
If your e-mail system breaks this link into more than one line, try cutting and pasting to make it work.)
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Dissertation coaching
While on the topic of lengthy projects, a friend of mine recently wrote excitedly that he had completed the class work for his doctorate, and was now ABD (all but dissertation). Such a step is a huge step, but I am all too aware, based on my own experience and that of the graduate students with whom I have worked as a dissertation coach, that the world of academia is too long inhabited by numerous ABDs who just cannot seem to get their dissertation finished, despite initial enthusiasm.
Why?
There is a dilemma. If the research topic is one that is not beloved of an advisor or dissertation committee member, it may be difficult to get more than pro forma encouragement from faculty. Yet if it is actually a topic near and dear to faculty, it may not feel as if it "belongs" to the doctoral candidate so much as to the person who has already done research in that area. Add to this the fact that, without classes to attend, and sometimes with a living to earn, ongoing contact with faculty may be difficult, and you can in some cases have a motivational quagmire. Stuck points include selecting a topic, developing a research design, writing the proposal, analyzing the results, and writing up the finished dissertation.
If someone you know is stuck at any of these points and feels that someone with whom to talk might be helpful, perhaps you might help by suggesting that they contact me for a free consultation about dissertation coaching.
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TELL A FRIEND
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Copyright 2003 Diana Robinson, PhD., PCC. Work in
Progress may be reproduced in its entirety only,
including this copyright line. Disclaimer -The contents herein are solely the opinions of Work in Progress owner, and should not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of validity or accuracy. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought.