Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
(Image Source: India Today)
Ways students can achieve their career and life goals
Excerpts from article published by India Today Web Desk
Lack of motivation is a common concern felt by many students in different stages of their academic lives. While some students struggle to cope with the pressure of academics, others struggle to develop an interest in what they are studying or pursuing.
Here are 5 ways you can motivate yourself towards achieving your life and career goals:
1. Discover your passion
Explore the discipline that truly excites you and focus on building your expertise in it. Many students continue to go through their academic routines without any vigour or excitement. Your passion may not necessarily come from your academic field. Pursuing a new passion helps reset your mind and makes it more focused and driven.
2. Don’t just study for scores
You do not need to limit yourself to classroom teaching or course recommended books. If you are a student dealing with lack of motivation, you must begin by overcoming this single-minded focus on scores and look at education as a vast expanse of learning. Immerse yourself in different authors and read multiple books on your subjects until you find a narrative that strikes a chord with you.
3. Surround yourself with motivated people
The company you keep is a key determinant of your success. It is important to surround yourself with people who are driven and motivated towards their goals. It helps you stay focused and driven yourself. Make friends with people who share your passion, and keep in regular touch with people who help you overcome your blues.
4. Learn new skills
An important key to motivation is to keep learning new skills. While specialisation is always valued, the job market today requires multi-skilled individuals. Not only will additional skills make your resume more attractive, they will also equip you better for the industry. If your daily academic routine is not motivating you enough, look for online courses and skills that you may pursue simultaneously.
5. Seek inspiration from powerful stories
A powerful story of struggle and success tends to reinvigorate and inspire us to work against the tide. If you are out of motivation, read inspirational biographies of people who overcame difficult odds to achieve their goals. Motivation is the food for life, so build a positive mind-set, work towards your goals and passion and see the magic life unfolds for you.
Career
(Illustration Source: Harvard Business Review)
Reignite your team’s motivation with art
Excerpts from article by Kenny White, published in Harvard Business Review
As we reach the one-year mark of working from home, remote teams are at risk of losing motivation. By drawing on techniques used by creatives, business leaders can revitalise teams and spark fresh momentum and innovation. Everyone can tap into free-flowing creativity to compose ideas beyond their usual boundaries.
Techniques from the following five artistic disciplines can propel your team’s creative thinking and break up the monotony of remote working:
1. Paint new perspectives through visual arts
When we visualise something, our brain cells perform similarly to how they would if it were actually occurring. Seeing what you want to achieve puts you in the end-goal position, so you don’t lose sight of the core aims. Drawing is a powerful way to open the raw, creative side of your mind. When you encourage people to change the medium they typically use to answer open-ended questions, you replace the structured, step-by-step process with something more exploratory.
2. Entertain, energise & escape in theatrics
One of our favourite artistic transplants is improvisation/improv. It helps people learn to read cues, laugh at themselves, listen more intently, and loosen up. And because improv is a team sport, it’s ideal for connecting everyone through a joint scenario. You can pull elements of improv into team meetings and exercises so people won’t immediately withdraw from the spotlight.
3. Create harmony through WFH dance
Sedentary activity can lower employees’ energy and motivation over time. Physical movement triggers the release of endorphins, which interact with receptors in the brain, stimulating positivity. A great suggestion is a walking group call where everyone in attendance is on the go as they chat or you can also set up a Zoom dance party. Not every second of the workday has to be serious, and this is a shared moment to be silly and human. It might start a little awkwardly but is worth the effort.
4. Use poetry to merge creativity and content
Poetry helps people extract thoughts from the recesses of their mind in a completely free-flowing, non-judgmental form. Try implementing a poetry session in the morning. If people respond well to these poetry sessions, you could organise regular online poetry slams or open mic events, giving people the space to experiment with their communication style.
5. Jam through new concepts and connections with music
When it comes to meetings, use music to insert energy into silences. You could curate a playlist for when you’re waiting for people to join or when people are reflecting on a certain topic. This music can help people relax or carry them into a pensive state. Music has an innate ability to connect people and allow them to share a part of themselves.
The arts have an important place in business. They’re not just fun for fun’s sake they allow employees to channel thoughts and pent-up emotions into something constructive.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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