When life sucks and the future looks bleak, how do you find hope?

It’s at my lowest moments, that well-meaning, generic advice is hair-tearingly annoying! Comments like:

People who drain you? You don’t need them in your life. Get rid of your drainers!

But what if ‘the drainers’ are your family? Your children? Loyal friends who are hard work, but they’re loyal none the less? Get rid of them?

If your work is taking over your life, change it. You’re in control of your own destiny!

But what if you have a large mortgage, a family who depends on your income, no bank of mum and dad to fall back on, and no obvious options?

You need to do something for yourself every day!

Don’t you just hate it when people say this? They’re always so earnest when they say it (as if its deeply profound wisdom you could never have thought of yourself) and ‘do something for yourself every day’, can also feel like YET another thing to add to your never-ending to-do list.

But if the typical well intentioned advice irritates you as well, then when things are tough, how do you keep going in a resourceful way?

In my last Burnout newsletter, we discussed the insights from the Stockdale Paradox and that’s well worth a read if you’re struggling at the moment (Stockdale Paradox: acceptance of today’s brutal reality - whilst not losing sight of a long term hope) but beyond The Stockdale Paradox, if you want to encourage yourself (and/or others) within a long period of ongoing adversity, then check out the insights from The Progress Principle!

1) What is The Progress Principle?

Researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, believed that the reason why some people were more energised than others, had less to do with bonuses and money, and more to do with something else - but what that was, needed to be determined! So, in the early 2000s they created a study which involved 238 employees across 26 project teams, from 7 organisations (representing various industries such as technology, chemicals and consumer products) Most participants were knowledge workers (engineers, marketers, developers etc) rather than workers performing routine manual tasks.

Rather than ask the participants a series of questions, they asked them to keep daily work diaries through the lifespan of major projects. Every workday, participants logged how they felt, how productive they were, what they felt emotionally and when, and what stood out on that particular day. But there was one key question that each person answered, each day:

“Describe one event that occurred today that stands out in your mind and was relevant to your work.”

After nearly 12,000 diary entries were analysed, Amabile and Kramer discovered something truly profound.

The strongest driver of motivation was MAKING PROGRESS IN MEANINGFUL WORK. Even small steps had a major, positive impact on mood, engagement, persistence and creativity. It’s what’s known as the The Progress Principle.

Let’s be completely clear then: for the participants in this study, of all the events that occur during a workday, the single most important factor in boosting motivation was making progress in meaningful work

2) So what? How does this help us today?

• Progress fuels performance. When people can see they’re moving forward, even if its tiny steps, they perform better. But they won’t always see it (particularly if the steps are tiny), and if they do see it, they may still downplay or discredit the progress. They may need colleagues/leaders to acknowledge the progress. And for you? If life is a struggle, it’s ok to acknowledge that (as per The Stockdale Paradox) but never lose sight of your progress steps each day, however small they maybe. They’re fundamental for sustaining motivation and performance.
• Remove obstacles which impede progress, and set yourself up for progress: As leaders, identify and remove the obstacles which prevent daily progress. What is dragging your team down unnecessarily? Do you need to roll up your sleeves and get alongside them to see what they see? And for you, do not set yourself up to fail. At the start of day, ask yourself: “What needs to be in place today, to give me the best possible chance of making meaningful progress?” Then at the end of the day, dwell on the progress steps made today. Enjoy them. Feel satisfied by them. Success is a slow game, you can’t rush it, but step-by-step, and marginal gain after marginal gain, you’ll get there in the end.
• Progress is the X factor for stimulating performance in tough times, but sometimes, it’s hard to spot: Back in the 1990s, we used to schedule a power hour into our daily cold-calling as recruitment consultants. No faffing about - no admin - no meetings - just one hour, fully focussed on cold outreach. Rather than a power hour, could you schedule a 5-minute ‘Progress Check’ into your planner before you close off for the day? Just 5 minutes to spot and celebrate the progress you made today? Don’t underestimate how important it is - the making of it, and the seeing that you made it!

If you want to bring the topic of burnout to life, either as a keynote talk, or as part of an away day, or wellbeing week initiative, or even as a collaborative, mini-podcast series for your organisation, then get in touch and let’s talk.

I’m a CPD accredited and TEDx speaker, podcaster and author, delivering entertaining, inspirational and relatable keynote talks, grounded in lived experience and global research.

Connect with me at: https://www.andrewpain.co.uk/

And/ Or let’s connect on Linkedin and DM me to book an exploratory conversation

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