Monday, 17 April, 2023 - 01:00
Can you remember a time when you felt energised and engaged by your work? When you enjoyed the challenges the day presented. You felt valuable, productive and capable, and you felt relaxed in your time off?
Lately, that feels like a thing of the past. It feels like the work is never ending and the expectations too high. You’re exhausted all the time, you feel resentful and underappreciated and you can’t see an end in sight.
Maybe you’re questioning if you should change jobs, or even leave the field of education. But, what if that’s not the only option? What if some simple daily practises can help bring back the joy in your work and life?
What is burnout?
If this sounds like you, you might be experiencing burnout. Burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that can occur when we experience prolonged periods of stress. It steals our happiness, our confidence and our ability to perform in work and life.
What causes burnout?
You might think that the stress and exhaustion you are feeling is due to all the things you need to do, and all the demands on your time. But, I’d like to challenge that and tell you that burnout starts with your mind.
Think of a time when you were so engaged in a task that you worked long hours but felt energised and joyful. In comparison, when our work is fuelled by negative emotions like resentment, fear or anxiety, even the most enjoyable task will feel unpleasant and stressful.
Our mind plays an integral role in creating overwhelm and burnout. This is good news, because it means you can use your mind to work for you, instead of against you.
This is not to say “it’s all in your head”. There are times when the demands and expectations of our work feel unreasonably high. But, if you can’t control the demands of work you can, at least, control the way you think and react.
Following is a list of powerful tools that I use with my clients and in my own life to create more joy, calm and personal power. I encourage you to experiment and see which tools work best for you. Even introducing one tool as a daily practise will have a significant impact on how you feel.
Tip 1: Plan and prioritise
When we are busy we might feel we don’t have time to plan and prioritise. This leaves us feeling out of control, overwhelmed and confused about our priorities. Just getting everything out of our head and onto paper can create more clarity and calm.
Action: Brainstorm all your tasks onto paper. Decide what is a priority and what is not. Be mindful of the difference between being busy and producing results. Eliminate unnecessary tasks.
Tip 2: Manage your mind
We brew up anxiety and stress with our own critical thoughts. In fact, we have around 60,000 thoughts per day - most of them negative and repetitive. The way we think and speak directly impacts the way we feel.
Action: Spend a day not speaking negatively about yourself, your job or anyone else. Notice how challenging this is, but also notice how much better you feel.
Tip 3: Practise gratitude
Research shows that this deceptively simple practise is an effective way to instantly transform our mood, and increase overall happiness and satisfaction with life.
By deliberately training our brain to look for what is good, we are rewiring the brain’s natural tendency to look for problems and risks.
Action: Spend a few minutes each morning or evening writing three things you are grateful for at work and in life. Then close your eyes for a moment and truly feel the emotion of gratitude.
Tip 4: Move your body
Often when we feel overwhelmed the first thing to go is our own self-care, such as exercise, eating healthy food and taking time to rest. When we feel tired, exercise feels like one more thing to add to our to-do list. But, counterintuitive as it seems, exercise has the opposite effect. It leaves us feeling energised, it lowers the body’s stress hormones (adrenalin and cortisol), and it raises endorphins (our body’s natural pain killers and mood elevators). It also helps us get a better night’s sleep!
Action: Incorporate 30 minutes of movement into your day.
Tip 5: Disengage deliberately
It’s so important to allow ourselves to completely disengage from work. Only by fully disengaging, can we fully re-engage, feeling energised and refreshed.
Action: Turn off notifications and resist the temptation to check emails during this time. Be mindful to disengage mentally as well as physically. When you catch yourself indulging in unproductive worry, say “stop” out loud to yourself and deliberately redirect your mind.
Tip 6: Make time for fun
When work is stressful we might become insular and stop doing things that we love. This only exacerbates our unhappiness, because life becomes all about work. So, if we aren’t enjoying work, we aren’t enjoying life!
I encourage you to flip the priority and make sure to schedule things you love first.
Action: Write a list of things that bring you joy. Decide to do one of those things every day! It might be as simple as spending five minutes reading a book, or having coffee with a friend. Finding joy each day will go a long way toward elevating your mood.
Tip 7: Recommit to your purpose
Getting back in touch with our bigger picture purpose can bring us out of the day to day monotony of a challenging time at work.
Action: Journal and reflect on why you became a teacher and the enthusiasm and energy that you started with. How can you bring that back? What parts of this career do you love? How can you do more of that?
There are times when the problem is with the situation and I don’t encourage my clients to remain in an unhealthy or toxic environment. However, often my clients find that they don’t need a new job, they just need a new perspective to bring the joy back to their work and life.
Vanessa Ward is a Mindset Coach who works with high achieving individuals to help them create less overwhelm and anxiety, and live with more purpose and joy.
Connect with Vanessa on LinkedIn or Instagram for more mindset tips, or to book a free 30 minute consultation.