Challenge

As someone who desires a CHALLENGE, you feel driven by work that stretches you within your desirable difficulty. For some, this motive manifests as a natural enjoyment of overcoming obstacles. For others, the CHALLENGE motive can surface if you’ve felt under-challenged, bored or are trying to expand in new directions. You may be drawn to professional opportunities that require the best of you and push the boundaries of your potential, ultimately bringing you closer to your goals. The need for CHALLENGE means you are less inclined to remain in “comfort zones.” You are likely to believe that rising to meet challenges leads to improvement, grit, confidence and resilience. Phrased differently, you see challenges as opportunities. To you, achieving a difficult or new task feels like personal or professional growth. You value advancement, and so this motive is at risk if you feel stalled in your work or your fear of failure overshadows you. If you are performing well but feel you are stagnating rather than progressing, it will take a negative toll. Without rising to meet new challenges you may feel opportunites for advancement will be limited. While failure can be disheartening at times, attempting something difficult of value and not accomplishing it perfectly supports this motive, rather than doing something that doesn’t CHALLENGE and interest you. You will be most engaged in work that pushes you in a meaningful and achievable way. Working hard without any success for too long will demotivate you, just as it would demotivate anyone, even if you are able to persist in the struggle longer than many of your peers. Never resting between challenges – even if they are challenges you enjoy – can threaten this motive as well. When your CHALLENGE motive  is healthy, you experience the emotional benefits of growing personally and advancing professionally.

You feel this motive being met when..

+ Your work stretches you so that you feel like you are growing or advancing in a positive way.

+ You typically feel well matched for the work you perform, and difficult tasks energize you rather than deter you.

+ You can feel good about working hard, because your work is satisfying and rewarding.

+ You know the work you are doing will help you advance in your bigger goals.

 This motive is at risk when…

– You are over-qualified and/or consistently under-challenged and bored in your current role.

– It’s difficult to remember the last time you felt motivated or inspired to push yourself at work.

– You are doing well at work, but you can perform your tasks with minimal effort or without deep attention.

A Work Wellness Check-In for CHALLENGE

1. On a scale of 1-10, how challenging is my current role? (1 = I could do it in my sleep, 10 = impossibly difficult) What would my ideal answer be?
2. If my role isn’t as challenging as I would like, did I always feel this way, or have I possibly outgrown what I do now?
3. When the work in front of me isn’t challenging enough, am I able to ask my team or manager for more stimulating work? How are my requests received?

4. If I’m not content with the current difficulty level of my role, have I demonstrated that I’m capable of taking on greater challenges and can be trusted with them? (For example: I get to work on time, I’m prepared, I deliver consistent results, my team can rely on me, I communicate well…)
5. Have I risen to a CHALLENGE in the last year in a way that I am proud of that strengthened this motive?
6. When I consider the times I’ve encountered my most positive challenges, do I find common themes in those experiences? Do I prefer a certain kind of challenge, or a certain kind of reward?
7. If I want expand outside of my comfort zone, who can I ask for advice or help to support me in ways that would be valuable? 
8. On a scale of 1-10, to what degree do I feel I’m afraid of failing at work? (1 = no fear, 10 = terrified) Does my mindset around, and tolerance for, failure holding me back? Am I willing to fail to meet this motive, why or why not? Is that serving me?

9. Do the people I work with share this motive, or do I feel like I’m the only one who responds enthusiastically when work gets hard?
10. To what degree do I find my work routinized, mundane, or easy, vs. interesting, fresh, and complex?
11. Do the people I work with know the types of challenges that invigorate me most? Do they know when a CHALLENGE can be demotivating for me?
12. When was the last time I felt like a work goal challenged me to improve? What is worthwhile goal I could set for myself?
13. Do I personally seek out opportunities that push me out of my comfort zone? Am I taking as much initiative as I could be?
14. Do I find myself creating my own benchmarks or my own work-related challenges to overcome? If not, is this something that would help me? And if so, has this been helpful? How has this strategy been received by my supervisors and colleagues (if they’ve noticed)?
15. On a scale of 1-10, to what degree do I feel I’m moving forward and making progress in my career? (1 = completely stagnant, 10 = advancing so fast I can’t keep up) What would my ideal answer be?