motivation

How to Plan for the Future
How to Plan for the Future 1024 640 admin

 

Nowadays, we are able to immediately satisfy our needs, whether it be same-day shipping or doing a quick online search to find the answer to whatever question we have. With this, we can forget the importance of planning for the future. In this Ted Talk, Ari Wallach gives us the proper tools to have the foresight to ensure that we can help make the world a better place in the next 10 to 15 years, and beyond.

Wallach suggests that we can better plan for the future by realizing our responsibility to help set up the future generations, rather than just focusing on ourselves. Next, there are many different “futures” that we can help become a reality if we put in the effort. Lastly, all of this is not possible if we think of the “future” as 5 years from now. Rather, we must think “30, 40, 50, 100 years ahead.”

This is an important shift in thinking, as many of us just try to find “sandbag solutions”: temporary fixes to our dilemmas. However, these do not fully fix our problems and leave the future no better than before.

With this in mind, we can take control of the future and not think about it as something that just washes over us. Rather, it is something we have full control of. We just need to widen the view of the world and our impact on others.

Watch Wallach’s Ted Talk below, and check out other talks at Ted.com.

Get to Know You: Brian Rendine
Get to Know You: Brian Rendine 1024 1024 MPatton

Brian

In today’s get to know you post, we’re talking with our Director of Program Development, Brian Rendine.

I am Brian Rendine, outdoor enthusiast, father of two boys and husband to a wonderful wife!

United EVENTures is an opportunity for companies to improve their team morale through fun and engaging activities that will leave a lasting impression. I am the Director of Program Development and I work with clients to build their team experience with United EVENTures. The client dreams up the team building event that they want to experience and then it’s my job to make it happen. I work with the company to tailor the experience to coincide with a goal their team wants to achieve. If a team wants to work on communication, I’ll work with them to design a program that encourages positive and thorough communication. Long and short of it, I make dreams come true!

The programs and services we offer motivate me to work hard for both our employees and our clients. It matters when you can see that you made a definitive difference and our clients leave with smiling faces.

When I was younger I debated between being a doctor or a teacher. I ended up teaching Physics for ten years before heading out with United EVENTures. I guess there is a common thread in there somewhere; science, coaching, and helping people reach their goals.

You never really know what you’ve achieved in life until you look back on it later. Right now it’s a work in progress, but my two boys are my biggest achievement.  In ten years I hope to be happy, healthy, and continuing to share ideas and change lives.

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Career Advice You Ever Got
The Best Career Advice You Ever Got 275 183 MPatton

The best career advice I ever received, I got from my best friend. I was just starting out freelancing and I thought I must be crazy for leaving a steady-paying but difficult job. Am I supposed to convince people to pay me to just write stuff all day? Apparently, yes.

“Just pretend you’re good at it. Eventually, you will be.” She made it so simple.  I’m not confident in my coding skills, but I can say with confidence that I’m willing to learn and have the equipment to do so. My first job rolled in and soon, I was surprised at how fast pretending to be good at my job meant I eventually became good at it.

Pretending you’re good at your job doesn’t mean lie on your resume – far from it. For me, it meant embracing the things I could learn from as much as it meant selling the skills I had. For example, an interviewer asks you this question:

What experience do you have with collaborative software?

Right, Answer: I have experience with Slack, but I’m interested in learning other platforms.

Wrong Answer: I only know of Slack but I don’t use it much.

See the difference?

More than just a poster, it's great career advice.

Great advice for any situation.

But so what, right? Now you’re confident but you’re still not an expert on collaborative software. You don’t need to be. Take time and back up your confidence. Look up tutorials for other software programs and platforms. Familiarize yourself with the basic who, what, how, why and you’ll have confidence going forward. I’ve noticed the more I go on, the less I’m pretending. It was really helpful advice.

United EVENTures CEO and President, Will Leggett’s best career advice is simple and straightforward: Figure out what you love to do in life and then figure out a way to get paid to do it. You will never work a day in your life that way.

Our Director of Program Development, Brian Rendine shares his best career advice: Do something that you love and you will never work a day in your life. I had an Irish Christian Brother in high school teach me Spanish for three straight years, Br. Sheridan, and he not only passed that good advice to me, but also was a living example of how when you love what you do, it’s not work.

Our redditors have also shared heir answers with us:

  • Document your wins and tell your boss about it OFTEN, not just during your annual performance review.
  • My best advice was work your butt off for something you’re passionate to achieve. Having done this I’ve accelerated quite quickly in my chosen career which is surprising for my age. I’ve only realized this was good advice 3 years later when it paid off.
  • Listen, don’t just hear. It is amazing what you will learn when your mouth is closed and ears are attentive.

So tell us in the comments, what’s the best career advice you ever got?

twitter, team building, best of twitter, #teambuilding
The Best of #teambuilding That Twitter Had to Offer…
The Best of #teambuilding That Twitter Had to Offer… 1024 768 admin

We went searching on Twitter this week to see who had the best #teambuilding posts. Here is what we were able to find! Take a look and leave some comments.

 

daniel goldstein, ted talk, motivation, long term goal, future
How to Resist Instant Gratification and Reach Long Term Goals
How to Resist Instant Gratification and Reach Long Term Goals 960 640 Emilie

Daniel Goldstein, who is in charge of the blog Decision Science News, is an expert in how we make decisions that impact our future. He focuses on the impact of economic and financial decisions, but his research analyzes the way in which we make all kinds of decisions. In his Ted Talk, “The Battle Between Your Present and Future Self,” he discusses the way in which we are less in touch with our future selves than we might think. Although we all know that one day we will get old, and that our present decisions will later effect us, we see our present selves as more “us” than our future selves, and thus show more loyalty to our present selves.

If we eat junk food now, we will gain weight in the future. If we don’t exercise now, our heart and muscles will be weaker later down the road. If we don’t save money, we will have less money for retirement. Often, we do not think of these things as definite. We figure we can exercise more later, or save more money at a later point. But in reality, these are just tactics for us to avoid the reality that our future selves are a direct result of our present. And when forced into a decision, we show more allegiance towards our present selves than future selves.

The key to reaching those long term goals is to remember that we are just as much our future selves as we are our present selves. Protecting and helping yourself in the future should be just as much a priority as helping yourself today. For this, we can try several tactics. Goldstein suggests simulating outcomes so that you can directly see the correlation between what you do today and what happens in the future. For instance, create example investment plans that demonstrate how the amount that you save now influences how much you will have later. Or create model exercise plans that demonstrate how this will impact your health later down the road. If you are a more visual learner he suggests using apps or images. For example, show yourself pictures of apartments you will be able to afford depending on how much you have saved for retirement. There are also apps that can make it look like you have aged or gained weight.

Overall, if you are finding it difficult to keep those long term decisions, do whatever you need to do to simulate future outcomes. And remember, your future is directly impacted by your present!

physical, activity, exercise, motivation
Why Your Exercise Motivation is Low: And How to Fix It
Why Your Exercise Motivation is Low: And How to Fix It 960 685 Emilie

Exercising more is one of those things that we all know we should do, but is difficult for many of us to follow through on. Even though we may want to exercise, finding the motivation to actually do it can be a challenge. But the key to motivation starts by first understanding the reasons behind your lack of motivation. By understanding exactly why it’s difficult for you to get moving each day, you will soon be able to hit the gym with far more ease. The best part? Not one of these methods gives you a time duration or number of reps you must hit each day.

1. Gender Differences. Research has shown that males tend to report greater exercise motivation than females. After devising various motivating reasons for exercising, it was shown that this gender difference results for primarily two reasons. Although males and females find similar motivation for reasons like improving body image, males find greater motivation to exercise with the goal of 1) improving their sex life, and 2) having more energy to do chores around the house.

How to Fix it: Identify multiple reasons you want to be in shapeIn order to close this gender gap, try trading some chore roles with your SO, so that both of you are engaged in more physically demanding chores that might encourage you to exercise. Additionally, both genders can try writing out different reasons for exercising: improving quality of life, decrease risk of disease, controlling weight, lowering blood pressure, sleeping better, improving your sex life, having fun with family and friends, feeling relaxed, feeling happier, etc: and identify which are the most important to you. Finding several important motivating factors makes it easier to self-motivate than simply exercising because your doctor told you to or because you want to fit into that bikini. It is easy to lose motivation over one goal, but more difficult over several strong and varying goals.

2. You’re only intrinsically motivated. When it comes to exercise, most of us are fueled by intrinsic motivation. On the surface, this seems like a good thing. However, while this intrinsic motivation encourages us to exercise for several important reasons, it decreases the amount we care about exercising the second our intrinsic motivation goes away.

How to fix it: Increase your extrinsic motivation. There are several ways to do this, the most obvious may be setting external goals. Take out that pedometer or Fitbit and challenge your friends. Or agree to take that new kickboxing class with someone. By doing these activities with friends, you are more likely to follow through. If you like exercising on your own, use personal motivators: for instance, make yourself run to Starbucks for your next coffee run (using a latte or frappe as a reward). There are now Craft Beer Races: 5ks which reward you with craft beer and live music once your run is complete. Whatever motivates you, use it as a goal for yourself! Any goal that rewards you for exercising will act as external motivation. Another way to increase your external motivation is by focusing on the disease diminishing effects of exercise. This is an incredibly important aspect of exercise, but we often forget about it, focusing instead on our physical appearance or ability to feel happier post-exercise.

3. Your exercises are focused on weight loss/shape. A lot of us fall into this trap. When we exercise, we focus on exercises that focus on our physical weight or shape so that we feel better about our physical appearance. But research shows that although exercise normally increases positive body image, this is hindered when our exercise is focused on physical appearance. This can make it more and more difficult to exercise the next time around.

How to fix it: Change your focus. Even if your main goal is to alter your body weight/shape, stop focusing on this in your workouts. It will make it more and more difficult to workout each subsequent time, and overall, you will achieve the appearance benefits you want more quickly by being regularly active than sticking to a specific, unenjoyable workout schedule. Instead, choose exercises that you enjoy and get your blood pumping. There are plenty of more enjoyable activities you can pursue that help your cardio or strength, without focusing on a certain number of reps.

4. You’re not working out hard enough. This is probably the opposite of what anyone will tell you when you’re trying to get the motivation to workout more. They will tell you to start small, and that any activity is better than none. And this is absolutely true! Perhaps counter-intuitively, however, motivation for your following workout session will be higher if you worked out more intensely last time. Perhaps this is because vigorous activity leads to more enjoyment benefits than lighter exercise: such as release of endorphins.

How to fix it: Focus on fun. I’m not about to tell you to have a really hard workout every day with tons of burpees and push-ups. In fact, that’s the exact opposite of what sounds enjoyable or motivating. Instead, I will tell you to focus on what activities are fun, because the more you are enjoying yourself, the harder you are going to workout. Go play tennis or some ultimate frisbee with a friend. Go outside and play with your dog, or have a water gun fight with your kids. Just the other day our Director of Technology, Brian, put his Fitbit on his young son, and he proceeded to rack up over 20,000 steps that day! If you’ve ever seen a child outside playing, you will see them run around, then stop when they’re tired, and then get right back to running. Start focusing on fun instead of how long you “have” to be doing the activity for. You will break a sweat in no time and end up being more active. Choose activities you want to do or learn, not a 30 minute block of time you have to be active.

5. You’re choosing the wrong exercise program or activity. A lot of trendy exercise programs aren’t sustainable. This is because people participate in them because they’re simply the latest craze, not because they actually enjoy the activity. When choosing a new activity or program, several key factors have been found to be motivating: that the activity is 1. Interactive, 2. Challenging, 3. Competitive, and 4. Social.

How to fix it: Find an activity that is interactive, challenging, competitive and social. This is certainly a long and difficult list to meet. However, it is not impossible. Challenging does not necessarily mean physically demanding, it could simply mean that the activity encompasses difficult skills to master. These other attributes: interactive, competitive and social, are best met through different games. Try getting a few new heart-pumping games for your wii fit, or join a nearby casual sports league. If these don’t appeal to you, just grab some friends or family to play a game at a nearby park. Any activity that has a competitive aspect built in (no matter how casually competitive) it will make the activity more fun and engaging.

6. You’re comparing yourself in the wrong way. Comparing yourself to others or valuing innate athletic talent is a surefire method to decrease your motivation. We already know the negative emotional effects of comparing yourself to others, but it also drastically harms your motivation. This is because the more we compare ourselves to others, the more we look at athletic ability as innate (thinking someone is just naturally faster or stronger than you). But in reality, we can greatly improve our athletic ability if we are motivated to do so.

How to fix it: Work towards your own goals. Focus on improving upon your personal goals. Set a step count each day, and slowly try to increase it. Work towards exercising within your optimal heart rate zone. Work to increase the time, intensity, accuracy or skill level of your workout. Whatever you do, stop comparing your own workouts or your physical appearance to others. Remember that everyone has a different athletic background, and other people have played more sports or spent more time on cardio or weights than you. Start looking at being active as a skill to achieve instead of something some people have and some people don’t. The more you work at it, the better you will become.

So get out there and start sweating! Remember to stop focusing on how long your workout is or the number of reps you’ve accomplished, and start focusing on the fun of the activity. From setting goals and rewards for yourself, to being aware of your reasons for being active, these suggestions are sure to get you more and more active with each day!

Lowenstein, J.A.S., K. Wright, A. Taylor, and N. J. Moberly. "An Investigation into the Effects of Different Types of Exercise on the Maintenance of Approach Motivation Levels." Mental Health and Physical Activity 9 (2015): n. pag. Web.
Homan, Kristin J., and Tracy L. Tylka. "Appearance-based Exercise Motivation Moderates the Relationship between Exercise Frequency and Positive Body Image." Body Image 11.2 (2014): n. pag. Web
Al Kubaisy, Waqar, Mariam Mohamad, Zaliha Ismail, and Nik Nairan Abdullah. "Gender Differences: Motivations for Performing Physical Exercise among Adults in Shah Alam." Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences202 (2015): n. pag. Web.
Moreno, Juan A., David Gonzalez-Cutre, Alvaro Sicilia, and Christopher M. Spray. "Motivation in the Exercise Setting: Integrating Constructs from the Approach–avoidance Achievement Goal Framework and Self-determination Theory." Psychology of Sport and Exercise 11.6 (2010): n. pag. Web.
Breland, Hazel L., Hon K. Yuen, Laura K. Vogtle, Katy Holthaus, Diane L. Kamen, and David Sword. "The Process Associated with Motivation of a Home-based Wii Fit Exercise Program among Sedentary African American Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus." Disability and Health Journal 6.1 (2013): n. pag. Web.
5 Amazing Ways to Motivate Your Team, According to Research
5 Amazing Ways to Motivate Your Team, According to Research 1024 683 Emilie

When it comes to being a successful leader, one of the most important skill-sets is learning how best to motivate your team. Luckily for you, we scoured the internet to find some of the best advice out there. Below are 5 surefire methods for motivating your team, as according to research.

1. Show Interest in Your Team’s Career Advancement. According to Payscale.com, the number one reason people quit their jobs (45% of quitters) is because they feel like they had no mobility within their former job. Speak with your team members about the possibilities they have for personal and professional growth, making sure clear paths exist for them to work harder and achieve these goals.

2. Make the Work Challenging. Another top reason for people quitting their previous job is because they did not find the work challenging enough. It is important to provide work which is difficult enough to keep workers interested, preventing them from falling into the tedium of repetition.

3. Utilize Objective Based Team Training. In addition to providing challenging work, it is important to provide workers with clear, outlined goals. According to research from the Changzhou Institute of Technology, objective based team training should include two main components: clear individual goals, and company/team goals and visions. It is important that each worker understands both the company objectives on a grander scale, as well as their role in this goal. Providing training in this way will increase team spirit and motivation by outlining the importance of each individual’s role within the larger context of the company.

4. Emphasize the Unique Contributions of Each Member. According to research by Albert Bandura, team members work less effectively when they believe that someone else on the team is a “weak link.” Even if this belief is not accurate, misconceptions that someone else on the team is not pulling their weight leads to team members working unproductively. By emphasizing the successes and unique skill-sets of each team member, this will make each member of the team feel like everyone is a useful, necessary member. Furthermore, it will allow newer members a safe environment to to grow and learn without judgement.

5. Create Distinct Tasks for Each Person. The term social loafing was coined in the 1900s as a result of a rope-pulling experiment. In this study, participants were asked to pull against a rope either alone or with the help of another. Participants put in less effort when they were pulling the rope alongside someone else as compared to when they were pulling the rope only by themselves. Team leaders should thus avoid assigning one general task to multiple team members, because it allows each member to put in less effort when another person is there to pick up the slack. Instead, assign each person a more specific task within the larger task, holding each person accountable to their portion of the objective.

Thoughts or comments? Comment below! We love to hear from you.

Clark, Richard. "Research-Tested Team Motivation Strategies." Performance Improvement 44.1 (2005): 13-16. Web. 
Holub, Anne. "Why Most People Quit Their Jobs." Payscale. 30 Sept. 2015. Web.
Jiang, Xin. "How to Motivate People Working in Teams." International Journal of Business and Management 5.10 (2010): 223-29. Web.