Vacations are an important part of your work year. Taking time away to relax, reflect, and recharge comes with several benefits. Yet there are times when your vacation ends but your motivation to dive back into work doesn’t follow. Before you can take steps to energize yourself, you need to understand a little more about why you’re having trouble getting started
The Mountain Seems too High to Climb
If you don’t think you can get a particular task done, you’re unlikely to muster the energy to work on it
- Turn the abstract task into specific steps you can complete
- Get some advice from others who have succeeded on similar projects
- Reach out to colleagues whose help you’re going to need to find out when they can be available to do their part
Nothing Seems That Important
Vacation changes your perspective on your daily life
- Your engagement with tasks depends on the motivational energy you put behind them
- When you get into a routine of going to work and doing the next thing that needs to be done, you don’t have time to focus on the collected impact of the work you’re doing or to think about the other ways you might spend your time
- Realign your priorities when you get back from vacation
You’re Stuck in a Rut
Moving forward in your career requires two key steps
- Identify a role that would provide the challenge you want
- Think about the additional skills you need to be a good fit for those roles
- The goal is to address the short-term and long-term factors that sap your drive
- Having concrete next steps that feel connected to a key mission maximize your motivation to get work done
