Motivation

My kids are year-round swimmers. If you’re not familiar with swimming, it is THE WORST spectator sport. Swim meets usually consist of 3 – 4 days of sitting in a loud, chlorine-gas-filled box waiting for your kids to swim their race, which only last from 30 seconds to 5 minutes…  then more waiting. 

At one of these nasal-destroying weekends, another swim-dad and I were passing the time discussing motivation. What motivates kids to get up at 5 AM to jump in a cold pool (in the middle of the winter)? And how can they stay motivated to work hard and swim faster?  The conversation digressed to memories of old Nike commercials and the Rocky movies… 

Rest assured there are no shortages of books, videos, blogs, podcasts, etc. talking about motivation.  One of the top-ranked blogs on motivation suggests a different way of looking at motivation. Rather than an internal, “willpower fuel” that pushes you to do something, you should look at motivation as external forces of competing goals, pulling you in different directions.  For example, the “comfort goal” of vegging on the couch is competing for the fitness goal of going to the gym. 

The trick, they say, is to control the environments of these external, competing goals (relax vs. fitness) and neutralize or eliminate counter-productive sources of motivation.  I know… easier said than done.  But it may be worth exploring.

What goals do you need to accomplish in your work and personal environments?  Are there projects you need to start?  How can you reduce the external “pull” of those non-productive, competing goals?  Maybe Camelot’s project management services can help.  If you have goals/projects with your WMS that you are trying to do in 2021, get the ball rolling by emailing support@3plsoftware.com.

Todd Akins
Camelot 3PL – Marketing