Maintaining Motivation
I don’t know about you, but some days are harder than others to maintain my motivation for what I do. After such a challenging and demanding 2020, it can all feel a bit hard some days and it might be easy to stick with what you know and just get through the day.
As the calendar ticks over to March, it is time for some tips to maintain our motivation. (I also like a bit of alliteration).
So what can we do to stop feeling stale?
Remind yourself of the value of what you do
As early childhood educators and/or parents you need to remind yourself of the incredible influence you have in a child’s life. Early childhood services and programs can help children to have the best start in life. Early education programs help children to develop their speech, language, motor, cognitive and social skills that set them up for a lifetime of learning!
Mix things up!
I find that spending time on my own professional development helps me to maintain my enthusiasm for my work. Quality training programs can really improve motivation for you and for your co-workers. Training and professional development improves staff retention and job satisfaction.
Learning new things is always interesting and provides a bit of a challenge. I like to try something new and then reflect and measure how it worked. If I find it to be useful, then I can make it part of my professional ‘tool kit’. This is one way to keep things fresh and interesting.
Step out of your comfort zone
Starting something new can be a bit overwhelming and we can easily decide to just keep doing things that we are used to rather than taking the plunge and starting a new project. However, this can really start to decrease your motivation if it goes on for too long. Trying something new can
increase your own self-confidence as well as improve the outcomes for the children and families you are working with.
One bite at a time…..
As the old joke goes – How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Change can be daunting but breaking tasks down into smaller manageable chunks is the most effective approach when you want to implement something new. As a speech pathologist and trainer in the Sounds good to me program, I really enjoy challenging educators to stretch themselves into new areas.
Are you interested in a new way of supporting training and development for you and your team?
For educators
The Sounds good to me course is designed for use in early childhood services and centres. It provides both excellent professional development for your team as well as everything you need to implement a fun, play based program of lessons and activities suitable for your 3-5 year group.
For parents
Would you like to learn simple and effective ways you can help your child be ready for school?
Sounds good to me – for parents was created by Speech Pathologists, covering all aspects of early literacy (language and reading) skills that your child needs before they start school. Each video comes with downloadable games, activities and information. Does this sound good to you?