Work Motivation

Most of us live with the stubborn idea that we'll always have tomorrow to do our most important and valuable work. We fill our days with frantic activity, bouncing from task to task, scrambling to make deadlines and chase the next promotion. But by the end of each day we're often left asking ourselves "did the work I do today really matter?" We feel the ticking of the clock, but we're stuck in first gear, unsure of the path forward and without a road map to guide us.

There’s a world of difference between making a living and having a life. Balancing the demands you face every day can feel like being trapped in a frustrating maze, but there is a way out: you can take control and live the life you want to live - and love your work at the same time.Live Life, Love Work, from bestselling NLP expert and coach Kate Burton, is full of ideas for reviewing your priorities and re-charging your energy levels.

If you listen to nothing else on performing at your highest level, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you focus on what matters, manage your energy and attention, and achieve remarkable results. This book will inspire you to improve on your weaknesses, not just your strengths; rise above the pack; take care of your physical health for sustained mental performance; understand what motivates you; use short-term goals to achieve long-term aspirations; and inspire others.

Employing his signature, immersive approach, Bruce Feiler is known for taking complex challenges and converting them into actionable steps that can help each of us live with more fulfillment and joy. From thousands of hours of interviews, Feiler has distilled a powerful new vision of work: The people who are happiest don’t chase someone else’s dreams; they chase their own. Freed from outdated scripts, they identify what brings them meaning and write their own story of success. The Search introduces an all-new toolkit for achieving that goal, 21 Questions to Find Work You Love.

Do you find yourself constantly overwhelmed by daily tasks, unable to focus, or struggling with impulsive decisions because of ADHD? Are you frustrated by your inability to manage time and organize your space effectively? Have you tried countless strategies that left you feeling exhausted and defeated? Meet your guide to mastering executive functioning skills and transforming your ADHD into a strength.

In Put Happiness to Work, Karpinski draws on his deep experience at the intersection of business and psychology to lay out a step-by-step program that includes specific activities to enhance engagement and generate happiness at work. Utilizing existing work habits and meetings, these dynamic yet simple tools will hardwire effective changes into leaders' and employees' behavior, creating long-term, sustainable engagement.

We've long been told, "Put your head down, do good work, and eventually someone will notice you." But that limiting and diminishing advice doesn't hold up in the noise and pace of these transformative times. The reality is, no one cares about your future the way you do. If you want to achieve remarkable results, it's up to you to talk about your successes and accomplishments.

In The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn illuminates the simple steps each of us can take to transform our own lives from the ordinary into the extraordinary. Through stories about Fred and others like him, Sanborn reveals four basic "how to" principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work.

Networking has garnered a reputation as a sort of necessary evil in the modern business world. Some do relish the opportunity to boldly work the room, but for many others, the experience is often awkward, or even terrifying. The common networking advice for introverts are variations on the theme of overcoming or “fixing” their quiet tendencies. But Karen Wickre, a self-described introvert who has worked in Silicon Valley for 30 years, tells you to embrace your true nature to create sustainable connections that can be called upon for you to get career assistance, advice, introductions, and lasting connections.

Coach Dar has seen a fair share of calamitous situations in her career, from major league players suffering slumps and season-ending injuries to executives floundering and experiencing financial devastation-plus her own setbacks like three strokes and the loss of her parents. As a mental skills coach, Coach Dar specializes in helping the best of the best get up and get going again after suffering setbacks. In The Art of Bouncing Back, she shares these proven strategies and techniques so you can ensure the obstacles and setbacks you face morph into setups for your next success.

Are you frustrated with a lack of results at work? Have you hit a wall? Are you uninspired, stuck in a rut, feeling underappreciated? Well, good news: your success is not up to your boss, your manager, your employees, or the economy. It's up to YOU. Business is never bad, people are just bad at being in business. If that makes you mad, this book is for you. Larry Winget hacks through the bad advice given in most business books.

For over two decades, Spencer Johnson has been inspiring and entertaining millions with his simple yet insightful stories of work and life that speak directly to the heart and soul. The Present will help you focus on what will make you happy and successful in your work and in your personal life.

Why are women so often overlooked and underpaid? What are the real reasons men get raises more often than women? How can women ask for - and actually get - the money, the job, the recognition they deserve? Prompted by her own experience as cohost of Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski asked a wide range of successful women to share the critical lessons they learned while moving up in their fields. Power players such as Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Harvard's Victoria Budson, comedian Susie Essman, and many more shared their surprising personal stories.

The traditional approach to career is failing us. Determine what you want to do with your life, it says, and methodically make your way toward that destination. We’re taught that once we get there, no matter how fraught and fatiguing the path is, we’ll find fulfillment. This is the 5-year plan, it’s setting the “right” goals, it’s one of the first questions we ask kids: what do you want to be when you grow up? The problem is this advice simply doesn’t work.

What drives us to unleash our best work? And how do we tap into that drive to get superior results with our managers, coworkers, and direct reports? As Todd Henry reveals in this illuminating book, drawing on decades of research and interviews with over 100,000 people, the answer is not one size fits all: Some people are energized by a race against the clock, while others put in extra effort only when they feel part of a team. For still others, nothing is as motivating as the possibility of public recognition.

Today, even as so many of us spend hours in front of screens and in the virtual world, there is a growing movement that recognizes the power in the personal, the imperfect, the handmade. Eric Gorges, a metal shaper, taps into that hunger to get back to what's "real" through visits with the fellow artisans he has profiled for his popular public television program. In this book, he tells their stories and shares the collective wisdom of calligraphers, potters, stone carvers, glassblowers, engravers, wood workers, and more while celebrating the culture they've created.

With 70 percent of our time spent at work, difficulties on the job can impact every facet of our lives. Contained in this book is not only technology to bring stability to the workplace, but the groundbreaking processes to return joy itself to all of life. Here is a book that does what you don't expect a book to do. It tells you how. It tells you the basis of things, and the most basic of things is life itself. This, then, is a book about life.

You work hard. You put in the hours. Yet, you feel like you are constantly treading water with "good work" that keeps you going but never quite moves you ahead. Or worse, you are mired in "bad work" - endless meetings and energy-draining bureaucratic traps. Do More Great Work gets to the heart of the problem: Even the best performers are spending less than a fraction of their time doing "great work" - the kind of innovative work that pushes us forward, stretches our creativity, and truly satisfies us.

Okay, so you're shy. Here are 85 proven techniques to help you conquer your shyness and change your life for good. No psychobabble. No nonsense. These tested "ShyBusters" prepare you for that upcoming party, work function, interview, date, and the rest of your life.

Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create the most "fun" workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company compete in today's bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit?