This post is part of the #YPSportsChat Blog Series! This series will give young professionals an inside look at the intricacies of the sports business world and advice on how to navigate it.
By: Epiphany S. Clark, @epiphanyclark
It’s that time of the year when days are shorter and nights are colder and frankly, all we want to do is anything than the work in front of us. Many of us are struggling to find the will or motivation to push forward and finish strong. Perhaps our team hasn’t done as well as we had anticipated and now we just want the season to end. Motivation is tricky. It comes in a variety of forms and at times can be hard to decipher. For example, do you get up to work every day because you want to be the top boss? Do you work because you have a family dependent upon you? Do you only work to pay your bills and live for the weekend? Perhaps it’s all of these things. Either way, truly deciphering what motivates us thrusts us into being better employees and coworkers.
“Identifying our motivations allows us to be more present and increases our influence.”
I want to start off by pointing out that many of us have motivation for our long-term goals. Those are much easier to identify and claim. But what about the steps it takes to advance toward those outcomes? How can we take advantage of daily making progress to achieve our long-term goals? I believe that by daily identifying our motivation we can accomplish our dreams and enjoy the successful path to achieving our goals.
We have to seek to set a new motivation for each day, each task, and each moment to propel us forward. To do so, you must identify your top priorities and make it a point to map out the motivation to achieve our goals and outcomes. This could be seen as tedious and not necessary for some, but in order to pull the best out of yourself, you have to be willing to put in the work. Instead of seeing this task as daunting, thinking of it as a bullet point that shows the steps to accomplish your priorities. For example, as a marketing coordinator, a priority of the day may be to set the in-game promotions/sponsor activations for the upcoming game this weekend. The motivation behind it could simply be to get it finished and mark it off our long list of things to do. You could also push further and set it to select the promotions ahead of time to allow for communication with the sponsors to ensure excellent customer service. Another way in which one could utilize motivation is to ensure there is a solid and well-communicated plan in place to activate the promotions to increase fan engagement and interaction, furthering the organizational mission.
“Do you get up to work every day because you want to be the top boss? Do you work because you have a family dependent upon you? Do you only work to pay your bills and live for the weekend? ”
I’m sure you’re thinking this tasks still seems to be another thing to do and frankly, there just isn’t enough time. I encourage you to shift your thinking to realize that many of those we admire and aspire to emulate professionally, take the time to invest in the small details such and goal setting and motivation identification early on. The top athletic directors, sports marketing professionals, general managers, sports agents, all do things daily that separate them from their peers. They invest in themselves daily by ensuring success. They map out their motivation and cease to let anything get in the way of accomplishing their goals. It’s the details and being mindful to pay attention to them that separate the good from great.
Identifying our motivations allows us to be more present and increases our influence. It enables us to engage our work and be more intentional with the folks we encounter during our work. Lastly, identifying what pushes us forward allows us to truly enjoy our work. It gently reminds us to remember our why and encourages us to pursue excellence.
I hope you will seek to find what motivates you every single day on your journey to achieving your dreams.
