When employees are engaged they get a personal sense of fulfillment from achieving objectives and / or doing their work well. It can be anything from “winning”, to being seen as valuable, to feeling pride in mastering a project or pulling a team together to accomplish something exciting. External incentives and consequences such as: winning trips, getting monetary bonuses, or getting scolded for not achieving an objective, all influence behavior to a degree, but when the desire comes from within, there is an unlimited supply of energy driving success.
Whenever we make changes, either personally or professionally, we are going to run into tasks that are uncomfortable. They may seem simple on the surface, but because they are new, they take more time and energy. The good news is that once you get yourself moving and actually do the tasks a few times, they slowly get easier, more comfortable, less fraught with conflict, and they start taking less time and less energy.
Before you even open your mouth, they already have an idea of who you are, what you think of them, what your agenda is, and what you want from them. Whatever words come out of your mouth will be automatically “fit” into their existing paradigm.
What will my parents think? What will my boss think? What will my friends think? These are the worries that influence our decisions and cause us the most anxiety. The good news is, most of those judgmental thoughts we fear are illusions. They don’t actually exist, except in our heads. Don’t believe me? Consider this.