Motivation. What do you think of when you hear this word? Energy. Drive. Success. Yes, all of these. Let’s talk about motivating yourself in your nursing career to achieve more, and therefore, to earn more money, more accolades, and more time for the things in life you want. Like having extra spending money, getting to go on that long-awaited vacation, buying that pricey pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing.
How do you get from where you are in your current nursing job to where you want to be in your career?
Breaking down the four steps of motivation success
1. Create your goals. Have you said any of these to yourself? “I became a nurse to do good. I want to earn more using my nursing skills. I want to be the best version of myself”. You can achieve meaningful goals. For example, your goal might be: I want to improve my nursing skill set so I can earn more money.
Decide on the front end what you want to achieve. This way you’ll know when you get there. Don’t let that dictate how much or how often you pursue your goals. There’s more to life than merely setting goals. (We’re going to explore that next).
2. Develop simple steps to achieve your goals. Have a Plan. Not just any old plan, but a simple, yet straight-forward plan that you’re willing to try.
This means you must prioritize what’s important and do that first. As it’s been said “Done is better than perfect”. For example, sticking with your same goal of “I want to improve my skill set so I can earn more money: Plan: I’ll search online three nursing certification programs. Since I’m interested in being a legal nurse consultant, I’ll email the contact for each one. Then, I’ll follow up if I haven’t heard back from them.
3. Manage your time. We all have 24 hours in a day. Take out 8 or so hours for sleep and we’re left with 16 hours to make a difference in our lives. Tell yourself you’re going to use those 16 hours to the best of your ability. Already working a full-time job? Then there’re less hours left in the day. Don’t waste them. Sticking with our example: Use 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there to check your emails, call the legal nurse consultant program, or if you’re already a PLNC, take 30 minutes or an hour to review those medical records for your attorney-client as a PLNC. One hour of your legal nurse consultant time equals $150.
4. Reward yourself. As you complete a step in your plan, reflect on your accomplishment (or even your failure). That’s how we learn. We ALL have to overcome setbacks in order to move forward. For example, you registered for the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Certification program. Log into it and look around at the online program. Get a feel for it knowing you’re on your way to achieving your goal!
You want to keep your motivational drive going so tell that grey matter inside your head what you want it to do. Now, go do it!
P.S. Want more motivation from someone who’s been where you are? Book an appointment with Elizabeth Rudolph, JD, MSN, RN, PLNC here.
