Why you should answer these 3 questions every morning to be productive
Asking yourself these 3 pointed questions can help you identify the root cause of your problems at work and will help you gain more clarity in your pursuits.
If you have to take 30 seconds right now and think what is stopping you in your job/business, what would your answer be?
It’s good to have a baseline to understand this.
A lot of leaders have the challenge of time or have issues like “my organisation doesn’t provide me enough resources”. There are entrepreneurs who crib that “my clients are too difficult to handle”. We pin the blame on external forces working against us. Of course, it is difficult but it’s worth considering that you are going against your own effectiveness or progress.
No matter how many years you have slogged, how great your work is or how experienced you are, there comes a time when you are kind of stuck. You are going to hit a wall and would not know how to move forward. Everybody feels stuck from time to time. It’s easy to put the blame on others and fail to recognise some of things that we can control.
Whether it is a creative professional or entrepreneur focused on building his or her business, it is a possibility that you are standing squarely opposed to your ambitions.
Here are 3 questions that could help you identify the root cause of where you are getting stuck and will help you get more clarity in your pursuits:
- What are you scared of? Sometimes the fear of the unknown prevents us from taking a decision on the first steps of our projects.
Take a few minutes to think about this - are you afraid of falling short? Are you afraid of your performance?
Some of us choose to avoid pushing ourselves to areas out of our comfort zone because that doesn’t make us feel good. But when we grow too comfortable with our circumstances, we stop growing, which leads to stagnation and mental rust.
It is very important to find if there are there habits or patterns that have been created over a period of time, and which are slowly suffocating brilliant work.
For example - you are not challenging or pushing your people because you want to be a lovable leader; you want to be liked by everyone rather than being an effective and authoritative leader. This is like a warm blanket that is suffocating your desire to produce brilliant work
- Where are you stuck? Is there something that you are ignoring that is screaming for your attention? Are you not paying attention because you are confused? Are there grey areas or gaps you are not aware of? These gaps or grey areas distract you from the true focus, leading to frustration and loss of traction. Identifying these gaps and trying to plug them would help you to get closer to your goals in a shorter period of time.Make sure you clearly define your work and what you are trying to do. A lot of times breaking things into smaller pieces helps you get more clarity on the goals and objectives you have established for your project.We learn as we act. We are predisposed to movement rather than reflection. However, it is very important to reflect and move forward
- What drives you? Relying on the wrong motivations can bring stagnation as well. We are all motivated to varying degrees by 3 things: Money, Recognition, Process.You need to find out which one motivates you the best. We are motivated by mix of these things, but those motivations change from time to time and you need to be mindful of them.Your work is more than cranking up a project to satisfy a client’s desire. This is your life. Your work is an expression of your identity. You will never have the opportunity to relive your day again.One day, the tomorrows will run out. Life is short. You cannot live with a problem, but you must act.
It’s not just about “What”, it’s also the “How”. If you get the how right sooner, you will get the what correct. If you get the process right, you will get the product right.
So ask these questions as soon as you wake up and discover the answers as a process that might help you to get yourself moving in the right direction.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)