After the meeting with Guru, Larry was too anxious to meet Jane and understand from her how she keeps herself motivated. Though he knew Jane, Larry asked Guru for setting up a time with her. He knew Guru would definitely assist as Guru likes this collaborative approach and Jane too likes to help coworkers. Thus the meeting between the two was set up. Here are the excerpts.
After exchanging pleasantries, Larry asked Jane “How do you keep yourself motivated all the time despite so many pressures be it professional or personal?” Jane smiled and told Larry “there is only one thing I do and that is I keep myself disciplined, I can talk about it and rest as you see follows”
I set goals generally at the beginning of the year. Like everyone has New Year resolutions. I spend quite some time thinking about it. I start my process sometime by mid-November and set my goals both short-term and long-term. I do take so much time, as some of my goals are spread over 12 months. In case of such goals, I check the status of these. I deliberate with myself a lot before penning down final goals. Each goal has a very well-defined timeline.
Before my goals are finalized, I like to be very clear in my mind as to why I want to achieve these goals. Are these goals consistent with my long-term vision for myself? Are they all aligned? This is a very critical step and I do have a couple of iterations before I arrive at the final list. The next step is to define a deadline for each. You may call it objective now as it becomes time bound but I still prefer to call it Goal.
If the timeline to achieve is longer than six months, I do break it down into smaller action points and define milestones. I prefer to keep it simple; a duration of 3-4 weeks makes it easy for me to keep track and monitor. There is no specific rule but I am comfortable with these timelines. Defining the milestones is not very easy as I really have to break down each goal into small steps also try to think about potential hurdles that may come up and draw a plan to mitigate same.
The next step is to prioritize amongst the goals defined. Initially, when I started this activity couple of years ago, I used to find that all goals are very important and urgent. It’s impossible to work on all goals at the same time so it’s critical to prioritize. I do look at low-hanging fruits but the main criteria for prioritizing is the impact of achievement of the goal personally or professionally.
During this time I also spend some time thinking about my weakness. It’s very important to know your weakness. This also helps me to decide what I should focus on in deciding the goals. I do take feedback from all seriously; as a result, sometimes it is perceived that I don’t agree with what is told to me. I like to get a deeper understanding of the feedback comments. This does help me in my future interactions. This year I am working on conflict resolution skills, which I am not good at.
By Christmas time my goals are defined and prioritized and I am ready for the New Year. I then ensure that they are displayed at key locations in my house so that I am in sight of these; it’s my screensaver on the computer, and wallpaper on my handphone. This I feel is very important as it helps me be focused all the time. As you know I take public transport to work which takes about an hour either way. This I feel is the best time to mentally calibrate myself. While going to the workplace I try to plan my day and while returning home I check on progress made during the day. Also, it is a good time to remind me why I have set up these goals with this set of priorities. If at any stage I have lost some focus due to some exigent factor then this recalibration helps a lot.
Once I am set on this path, I keep checking my progress against milestones and do celebrate small wins to keep myself charged up. I do present myself with small gifts like a book, or membership of some specific forum, etc. that in turn helps me to stay focused and achieve my goals.
Lastly, there are two very important points. I have an open dialogue with myself internally to stay away from distractions. I was told by one of my teachers, “ You, yourself are your best philosopher, teacher & guide”. No one knows you better than you, yourself. You can be absolutely honest while giving feedback without thinking about any repercussions. Secondly, I do surround myself with friends who constantly encourage me on this journey. We are all like-minded groups who help each other in achieving our dreams.
Jane concluded, “Larry, I hope this answers your question. This is a little longer answer but this in short is how I stay disciplined and motivated. “ Larry told Jane that this was extremely helpful and he too would try to work on similar lines.
