Find (and keep!) your motivation in 2022: 7 ways to stay motivated at
Dec 10, 2021

You’re great at what you do. You have a clear roadmap of where you want your career to take you. However, even when you have every step, milestone, and promotion mapped out, the reality is that advancing doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s common for work energy levels to drop — particularly at the end of the year. Suddenly things that you took in your stride can feel like a slog and you can get bogged down and demotivated. For example, a professional development course you were excited about a month ago starts to feel like a drain on your energy, or a work project you felt confident about suddenly appears to be overwhelming.


Moments like these are crucially important because if you become discouraged, chances are you’ll start to procrastinate. The trick is to stay motivated, even when you feel like you’re standing still. Take this skill into 2022 and you’ll reenergise your whole career approach.

The link between emotions and motivation



The key to feeling motivated lies in the word “feeling.” According to Eric Barker in his Time article “How to Motivate Yourself: 3 Steps Backed by Science”, emotions nearly always win out over reason. When you’re unhappy, discouraged, or stressed, these negative emotions will result in procrastination. On the other hand, when you’re feeling happy, confident, and excited, these positive emotions power action. In other words, positive emotions form an integral aspect of motivation.

Seven strategies for staying motivated


Some of us have naturally sunnier dispositions than others, but it’s important to remember that a positive attitude and motivated approach are skills that can be learnt. So, forget New Year’s resolutions about hitting the gym or quitting a bad habit, instead invest in cultivating a positive attitude and staying motivated; this approach could accelerate great things in your personal and professional life!


  1. Visualise your goals. Positive imagery is a powerful way to remain inspired to advance. Think about your goals every day. Imagine your life once you’ve reached your professional goals and use these images to motivate yourself.

  2. Be realistic. Advancing your career is all about attaining your goals — but those goals must be realistic; otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Bear in mind that every time you meet an objective, you’re advancing in the right direction. Carefully review your plans, and determine whether you need to add smaller, interim goals that will help you feel confident on the way to your bigger objectives.

  3. Focus on the activities that fuel your purpose. According to an article titled “7 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work Hard When You're Really Not in the Mood” it’s important to stop caring about things that don’t matter and to remove activities from your to-do list that aren’t “inherently meaningful or part of a larger mission”.

  4. Learn positive self-talk. Just like a coach encourages their athletes by assuring them they can do it, you should learn to encourage yourself with positive self-talk. If you’re afraid of failure and you tell yourself a task is too difficult, chances are you won’t do well. If you tell yourself a challenge is an opportunity to test your skills and learn new ones, you’re creating a positive situation for yourself in which you’re not limited by your own apprehension.

  5. Develop a routine. Heading into January with a clearly defined routine can provide you with a powerful tool to stay positive and motivated throughout the year. The more you grow accustomed to doing certain things like studying or networking for a specific amount of hours a day at a certain time, the easier it becomes.

  6. Create a competitive environment. Friendly competition can help you to up your game and surpass your own expectations. Find one or two colleagues or friends who are also looking to advance their careers and inspire each other to continuously do better.

  7. Reward yourself. In his Chron article “Motivational Strategies in Business”, George N. Root III explains how rewarding employees inspires them to perform better. You can apply a similar strategy to your career. However, instead of only celebrating when you’ve achieved a goal, take the time to reward yourself simply for your hard work — treat yourself to a movie, a nice dinner, or whatever fun activity you enjoy most.

Advancing your career takes time and hard work. Use these seven tips to keep yourself motivated, and you’ll find it becomes easier to consistently move your career forward in 2022.

14 Aug, 2023
Rephrasing the famous song, “Love is in the air”, let’s talk about change is in the air – and everywhere. We grow. We change. Look at your childhood photos. Watch your kid, your nephew, your niece. The change is there, and it’s incredible. Nature is constantly changing. We wait for summer as the time to enjoy outdoor activities and gardening, for a quick visit to the beach, or simply take time to relax and spend time with family, friends and loved ones. We wait for winter (even if we never see snow falling) to decorate the house for the holidays, pack presents for the people we love and unpack our own. The colour of the leaves changes, the weather shifts, and flowers blossom in their time – the landscape is constantly transforming. The world around us is changing. We travel to other countries and learn new things, cultures and languages. We take on new hobbies. We get new skills. After a couple of minor kitchen accidents (sometimes), we can cook delicious dishes and get compliments from family and friends. We transform our bodies at the gym or simply by creating the habit of walking every day. We meet new people, we sometimes fall in love, we build families, we have kids. And if you step back for a second, you realise you might have met your other half by pure accident. But you took a leap of faith into the unknown. We embrace many types of unknown change, except for the one that can change how we live five days a week – to change jobs. “I am too old/too young to change”, “I’m used to this environment; It’s my comfort zone”, “Well, I don’t get any promotion, and what I do doesn’t change the world, but it’s stable”, “I am afraid to ask for more interesting projects. What if my manager fires me?”. We often don’t want to change because that step requires a vision, courage, external support, and a leap of faith into the unknown. Scary? Yes. But also promising. A step into the unknown? Yes. But it can open a new door. Do your inner values marry what you do? Yes, it is essential. There is nothing terrible about staying in your comfort zone. At some stage of your career, staying put can be an excellent decision. But if you feel that you need a change – talk to Kelly. We don’t mind going the extra mile and support your wish to embrace the change. The one which will give meaning to what you do, feel proud, motivated and fulfilled. Ready for changing? We’ll make sure your talent can truly shine.
10 Aug, 2023
You’ve seen these guys before when a circus came to your city or maybe on TV. They walk on a wire at an impressive height, sometimes without insurance, sometimes with a long stick that probes the void right and left. They walk slowly, trying the wire with their toes first, making small steps, their eyes fixed on the small platform where they plan to land soon. They never watch down. They don’t listen to an audience that applauses or gasps in awe. They are concentrated on keeping their balance. To keep balance. Let’s come down from the wire above the arena or stage. Let’s look closer at balance, where it has its roots and the secrets of keeping it. Is it an art? Or is it a skill? Can you learn to keep balance? Or is it an innate skill that only gymnasts, figure skaters, circus artists and ballet dancers are born with? Want to know the secrets of a ballerina that must perform 32 fouettes, a complex ballet movement that requires turning 360 degrees at a high-speed standing on the point of a ballet shoe? First, keeping balance is a skill people must learn for years. In ballet, sport, circus, real life, and… work life. A ballerina is taught to pick one point and to fix her eyes on it when she makes her 32 fouettes, a complex ballet movement that requires turning 360 degrees at high-speed standing on the point of a ballet shoe. She focuses on one thing that keeps her upright. She doesn’t look anywhere else. Gymnasts in some disciplines are constantly trained to feel the bar under their feet. They are prepared to land precisely on the bar after they jump, and the incredible contortions we admire in competitions. But let’s come back to the circus artists we have begun with. Often, they have a long stick in their hands to keep their balance. Is their secret hidden in the stick? And what is the secret? You don’t need to be a ballet dancer, a gymnast, or a circus artist to get the idea of balance. Here are your first two steps in your balance training: 1. Keep your main priorities in mind. And have a clear idea about what is very important for you and where you are ready to compromise. But don’t listen to external opinions that don’t align with your ideals. Forget about the audience’s applause – focus on you. 2. Use some help to stay upright and get to your goals. Imagine your life split on two ends of the helping stick, your job is on one end, and your private life is on another. How comfortable do you feel at your height now with the load on both ends? You need support. We at Kelly pay a lot of attention to balance. The balance between people’s private lives and their jobs. The balance between feeling appreciated and professional goals or between achieving extraordinary results and being inspired. Talk to Kelly today. We are not ballet coaches or sports trainers, but we know much about how important work/life balance is in our lives.
03 Aug, 2023
We often associate certain qualities with individuals who seem to possess a natural talent for creativity. We convince ourselves that painting, singing, or dancing are pursuits reserved for these "real" artists while we remain mere spectators. Creativity? Inspiration? No, it's not about me.
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