It’s Monday evening and you’re almost six hours in your shift, while your friends are out, having fun.. Despite the fact that you LOVE your job as a bartender, there will always be some days you lack motivation. Find out how to overcome these little downs and stay focused at work, even if it’s not your day today. Here are 5 tips to motivate yourself to work hard when really all you want to do is curl up in bed or celebrate beer time.
Prepare mentally: Subdivide your goals into smaller steps
Instead of focusing on the fact that you still have to work for a couple of hours, create small, bite-sized goals. It helps to keep yourself busy with small tasks such as stocking up the bar to prevent taking a look at the time every few minutes. Of course you should have one big, overall goal but it can be extremely helpful to break this one, enormous task down into smaller goals. You want to become known for creating the most beautiful cocktails in town? Step up your game by coming up with a cool idea for a cocktail garnish per week, practicing is the most important part to improve as a bartender! Focusing your thoughts on the here and now will help you to stay more concentrated and it will make you feel like you’re making progress. Being rewarded with the feeling of accomplishment is the key to staying on track!
You're one of the lucky ones!
Make it your mission to do your very best. If you’re having a bad day, remind yourself that you’re one of the lucky people who get to make their passion their profession! Bartending is your true calling. Sometimes some reassurance can also help to overcome a dip in your motivation. Remember what it is really like to work behind a bar. If everything else seems to go wrong at work today, just try to focus on creating beautiful drinks, this will definitely help you push away those negative vibes!
Good vibes only
Ever heard of the 5 by 5 rule? ‘If it doesn’t matter in five years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes being upset about it.’ So basically it is a pretty good advice to stop caring about things that don’t matter. Things that don’t mean a lot often cost us lots of mental energy. Your passion for bartending is bigger than those small moments of mishaps- It helps to remind yourself of that. Of course it can be insanely frustrating to have a guest that is super rude, even though you’re doing your best, but it will only make you feel bad about yourself if you obsess too much with this negativity. Try to refocus on a fun task such as creating beautiful garnishes for your drinks instead!
Celebrate your accomplishments
This also brings us to the last point: acknowledge your achievements! There’s no shame in telling yourself that you're doing a good job and for example really improved your flair skills behind the bar! Appreciate the small things and celebrate them. You need more wins in your life. In the long run you’ll be way more satisfied with your results, feeling encouraged to be even more productive!
Take the time to re-charge
Give yourself a time-out! Bartenders have a flexible schedule, meaning that they have to work on the weekends at night, which can be pretty though. Remind yourself to relax when you’re off to get the chance to re-energize and to be able to have a fresh start at the beginning of your next shift.
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Written by Sofia- February 2018