How to Become More Engaged Today!

Disclosure: This post contains links to items for which I may receive a small portion of the proceeds. 

When we think about engagement, we often look to others to improve our engagement.   “How can my boss make me more engaged?” “How can my spouse make me more engaged in our marriage?”  “I wish my employees did more so I could be more engaged in my business.”

To help us become more engaged in each aspect of our lives, we have to start understanding that we are responsible for our own engagement.

Others can and should help us, but we are ultimately responsible for how engaged we are.

Changing that perspective is powerful because believing and understanding that you responsible for your engagement is empowering and puts you in a position of strength.  You move from a victim to an action taker.

So now that we know we need to be more engaged with our engagement, what do you do?   Let’s take a look at three easy steps that you can take to be more engaged in all aspects of your life, today!

Step One: Understand Your Engagement Needs

The first step is to understand what is getting in your way of being more fully engaged.  What else do you need? What are you lacking?  What do you need less of?    Dig down deep and push until you get to the real underlying issue.  You must ask yourself the hard questions and take time to reflect in order to identify some potential engagement opportunities.

Step Two: Identify What You Can Do

Identify some things that you can do TODAY to take action.  It doesn’t need to be a huge action, you should look for some quick and easy ways that you can work towards being more engaged.  For example, if coaching your team gives you fulfillment and improves your engagement, schedule 10 minutes of coaching time each day. It’s a small action that doesn’t require much but being able to do what you love every day will certainly help you become more engaged.

Speaking of doing something daily, make sure that you commit to take action every single day.  You owe that to yourself. If you don’t take action daily or make excuses, you are only cheating yourself. Remember, YOU are responsible for your engagement. If you can’t invest in your engagement, it will be hard for others to invest in your engagement.

Step Three: Communicate Needs

While you are responsible for your engagement, others can certainly play a hand in helping you become more engaged. Identify some areas where you need more help from someone else.   Just make sure that when you are identifying things that they can do it is realistic and actionable.   Giving them vague feedback like “I want to develop” is not actionable.   Instead, say something like “I would like to take this course next month on public speaking in order to improve my presentation skills.”    This makes it easy for others to take action and for you to measure whether you are getting the support that you need.

Once you start to truly take ownership of your engagement, your engagement will snowball.   You will be more engaged and your relationships will likely improve as well.

Let’s hear some engagement stories? When have you felt the most engaged? What actions did you take to be more engaged? Leave a comment below?

Want to read more about engagement? Check out these books!