Want To Quit But Can't? 3 Ways to Stay Motivated
It is imperative that you stay positive and motivated, studies have shown that being positive allows you to spot opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t if you were negative. A study mentioned in the book the Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor demonstrates this where two separate groups who identified themselves as either lucky or unlucky were asked to scan through a newspaper ad section and count the number of pictures. Those that perceived themselves as unlucky were more likely miss the ad that said “stop counting, tell the experimenter you’ve seen this, you’ll win $250.”
But the question remains, how does one stay positive? Especially when your relationship with your current place of work, is dead to you.
Take the actions that you would take as if you were preparing to look for a new job, as if you were positive.
You may feel down because you don’t feel in control: You can’t quit and you can’t do anything about it. WRONG. You still have control and can certainly action the following:
Think about what type of company/ job you would want to work for and research what it takes to apply.
Draft a CV tailored for those roles.
In drafting a CV you will identify knowledge gaps and what you could do to tick off the job spec
Keep in touch with recruitment agents
You may not apply for any jobs, but when the time comes you will be more ready to jump at the chance. For more ways to keep developing yourself read here.
2. Accept that you won’t be moving anytime soon, so look for opportunities where you currently work
Do the best you can at your current job, there may be a lot of change very quickly. You want to be best placed to take advantaged of those changes.
For example, perhaps a role above or diagonally above you gets made redundant, you may be in a position to move into these roles.
Get advice from others, don’t be afraid to ask for experience in department X if you feel it may help your long term career plans.
3. Look at the bigger picture and be grateful
At the end of the day, you have a job, whilst many across the world may have been made redundant or are in a less fortunate situation.
You’ll have heard all this before but writing 3 things that you are grateful each day, is scientifically proven to help reset your mind to a more positive and motivated state. Allow yourself to feel down once in a while, but then pick yourself up, remember the only one that really stops yourself from growing and progressing is you.
GOOD LUCK!
