It’s easy to tell someone to “work hard” and even easier still to tell it to yourself! And yet people still continue to struggle with improving their work ethic to a satisfying degree.
This time, we’ve spoken to David Seruya—who is a well-known entrepreneur and business owner from New Jersey—in detail on the subject of work ethic and what one can do to improve and motivate themselves to continue to strive towards success.
Work Ethic: Why Improve It?
To begin with, David Seruya had this to say about the importance of one’s work ethic and why one should strive to improve it: “Most people have probably heard the saying, ‘Do what you love.’ This is used to encourage people to pursue careers in the fields that they enjoy — all for the sake of boosting their work ethic naturally through personal enjoyment.
“It’s effective, but it’s not foolproof. Only a very small minority of people are able to do work that they actually enjoy. And, even then, there’s always the risk of their enthusiasm draining due to their work environment. The only thing to do, then, is to be more proactive in seeking a better state on their own — which is a lot easier than you’d think! It’s just a matter of finding the right mindset and prioritizing yourself.”
8 Helpful Tips for Improving Your Work Ethic:
The advice given by David Seruya during our talk have been condensed into eight seperate points — which have been broken down below:
1. Establish Your Goals!
Goals are important, but they can seem a bit ephemeral at times — floating by one moment and gone the next. If you want to improve your work ethic, then you have to organize your goals. What do you want to achieve? It doesn’t have to necessarily be succeeding at work, it doesn’t have to be just one goal either. What’s important is that you have something distinct to work towards, David Seruya explained.
2. Take Care of Yourself!
On the path to success, it’s easy to forget about one’s health. After all, if a couple of late nights can help you work towards your goal further, isn’t that a good thing? David Seruya answered this question indirectly by saying: “With this approach, you might be able to achieve your goal in the short-term, but in the long-term? You might find that it is what will hold you back.”
3. Create the Right Work Environment!
Everyone has a different way of working. Some people might prefer to work in complete silence for maximum focus, while others may prefer a more lively attitude where they can take micro-breaks to chit chat or work on other things. Whatever your preferences are, it’s important to hone in on them from the beginning, David Seruya explained. After all, the more comfortable you are while working, the better your state of mind will be.
4. Get Some Downtime!
David Seruya empasized that downtime is also important. He stated that he reserved his weekends for his family, even going as far as to completely shut himself away from his emails and messages to make sure that he is able to let himself fully rest and get a break from work. This, David Seruya said, was his way of relieving burnout and making sure that he was prepared to face his responsibilities when the weekday began.
5. Start Off Strong!
The most difficult part of getting work done is getting started. Everyone is probably familiar with the “white page syndrome” that made it almost impossible to finish essays for school!
Everyone has different ways of dealing with such a scenario but the most crucial thing is to get started, David Seruya explained. It will take a bit of confidence to do it right, but by starting off strong, the rest will feel a lot more easy to complete.
6. Reward Yourself!
Although it might not be effective all the time, having an incentive to work towards is another way of improving your work ethic. For David Seruya, this incentive takes the form of travelling the world with his family. It doesn’t matter if your rewards are of a smaller or larger scale in comparison — as long as it motivates you even a little bit, it can be considered a win.
7. Evaluate Your Progress!
Evaluating your journey thus far is another great way of finding motivation to move forward.
You can encourage yourself based on what you’ve already accomplished and be comforted by the fact that you are making progress — whether it’s slow or fast, as long as you’re still pushing forward.
8. Don’t Dwell on Mistakes!
The biggest harm that you can do to your own work ethic is letting failures cloud your judgement. If you let your mistakes stop you, then you will never be able to move forward. Instead, the best thing to do is take it as a learning opportunity and move swiftly on. It is only by accepting your failures that you can achieve success.