Thinking of starting to work at home? Lacking motivation to do so?

What is motivation and why is it so important to us, especially when we are working at home?

This is not just for people like you and I who are starting out on a work at home business. It also applies to anyone working on their own. We all start out fully motivated don’t we. Well if you are then subsequently not motivated why does this happen?

When we are at work there is usually not an issue with motivation, even if only to get on with the work to make the end of the working day appear to come more quickly. So what are the differences between working for an employer and working for ourselves from home in the area of motivation?

Intuitively we should be more motivated when we are working for ourselves because all the reward is ours isn’t it?

So why is it that motivation, when working at home, is recognised as a real issue. Recent reports have stated that statistically more people are less motivated when working at home than are motivated when working in a job. Why is this?

I would suggest that the so called job world is one which we have grown up with and have certain expectations, and these give us emotional comfort.

Some of our expectations are:

· When we start there is usually someone to help and guide us until we know what to do.

· We get paid at the end of the week or month.

· The office or environment is provided for us, and is usually okay.

· We make friends or acquaintances at work.

· We can discuss any problems or issues we may have either with our boss, team leader or if these are not available (or helpful) with anyone else in the company.

· We have a routine of working hours which we stick to (well most of the time anyway).

· We get paid holidays away from work.

· We may get a pension from our job.

· We may get some satisfaction from the job content.

· We have a routine of travel to the office most days although sometimes we may work at home.

· We do have to adopt a dress code.

When we are working at home for ourselves however many of these comforting expectations which we kind of accept, are missing aren’t they?

Taking the list above:

· When we start there can be an information overload/no one to help us and we become nervous as to whether this was a good idea.

· We may not get paid at all, or we don’t know if we will make money.

· The office environment is our own home in which there may be many distractions.

· Apart from family and friends we will not make new friends in person – it becomes a “lonely” job.

· We have not necessarily anyone to discuss problems or issues with.

· There is not necessarily a routine of hours which we have to stick to.

· We don’t get paid holidays away from work

· We won’t get a pension from work at home jobs (normally).

· We will get some satisfaction going forward but at start up this is missing.

· We don’t have to travel to work each day – a bonus (no cost).

· We don’t have to even get out of our pyjamas do we?

Look at these two lists and we can see that apart from two questionable benefits, working at home does not give us, at start up, many of the comforting expectations we get from a paid outside job. If you accept this you may well give up or decide not to even start to work at home.

So to avoid this situation I would suggest that you need to set or re-set your expectations about working at home, according to the differences we have identified.

These new expectations might be:

· I might not get paid for a while, I will look to the long term for these gains..

· I need to avoid distractions in my home, in order to focus on my work..

· I will find a way to discuss any problems I have and make friends even though not in person.

· I need to set a routine for working hours.

· I may not get the same level of satisfaction as I did in the office in the first few months of working at home.

· I will save money by not having to travel to work.

· I will adopt my own dress code.

If you are really questioning why you are working at home, have a go at re- setting these expectations and see how it increases your motivation.

To quote Bertie Charles Forbes

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”