Are you lacking initiative and creativity at work? There is a way to help.

What you do for work can easily have an impact on your whole life. The career you choose to pursue or the job you choose to work can easily be a hugely positive or negative part of your life.

The average Australian works up to 40 hours per week, meaning that over a lifetime, we commit a considerable amount of our time to our workplaces; if we don’t enjoy our work, this can put a significant strain on our emotional and mental health. This works the other way as well. If you are struggling throughout your personal life, this can quickly impact how you perform at work.

However, if you have an issue that is causing strain on your life, you don’t need to live with it. If you have hit a point in your career or just your current position where you lack initiative and creativity, many possible causes and solutions exist.

A lack of initiative and creativity in your workplace can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction or resentment towards your job. A lack of ambition and creativity at work can also lead to poor performance, a hostile work environment and can create conflict between yourself and your colleagues and supervisors.

This can often occur for many reasons, some of these reasons are personal, and you will need to adjust them yourself; others are environmental and are a sign you should remove yourself from a bad environment. After all, life is too short to be spending 40 hours of your week unhappy.

“A lack of initiative and creativity in your workplace can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction or resentment towards your job.”

One of the reasons you lack initiative and creativity can be from a lack of motivation in general. A lack of motivation can stem from many aspects of your life. The first step here is identifying why you are experiencing a lack of motivation, so you can overcome the issue and adjust your mindset.

Another reason is that you are not finding any purpose within your current position. This can stem from a lack of purpose within your life in general. It is essential that once you have identified this lack of purpose, you can clarify what it is you want from your career, discover your passions or talent, and then develop a positive mindset towards the change you are about to experience.

There is also the possibility that you have fallen into a pattern of negative thoughts and behaviours, which can impact your working life and your personal life.

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and a BSc Logopaedics, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. She has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health, and the formation of memory.

According to Dr Caroline Leaf, it takes approximately 21 days to start building a new mental habit. However, it takes a minimum of 63 days to change an automated habit. Because we are not only developing new habits but learning to change established ones, true transformation needs at least 63 days to take effect.

It’s also imperative that you do not hijack yourself through negative internal self-talk and bullshit beliefs. If you choose to tell yourself you are not creative, guess what, you won’t be. Reframing that to positive internal dialogue, I am a Master Creator, I am a Creative Genius can immediately trigger a different response – both physiologically and neurologically. Free of the stress of beating ourselves up and creating cortisol (fight of flight) within our brain, positive self-talk releases the feel good DHEA chemicals that lead us to be the best we can be creatively.

So the process of Thought Shopping, replacing those negative thoughts with positive ones, can be a really simple first step in the process.

No matter the reason behind your lack of initiative and creativity, you don’t need to work through it all by yourself. It is often better to find help somewhere else. Gaining insight and advice from a professional is the best solution to your problem by finding guidance from an expert and a professional coach.

The key to transformational change is connecting with a coach and mentor who can lead you through the process of building new mental habits.

Professional workplace coaches who specialise in corporate work environments can help identify the issues you are facing and put a plan in place to change your attitude and outlook. They can help you develop a positive mindset towards your work and pave the way for a happier corporate future. The only thing standing between you, and fulfilment and happiness from your job, is yourself. There is no better time to change that than right now.

Get in touch today to find the perfect professional coach who specialises in corporate programs.