Last week an administrator was describing how she dreaded Monday mornings and how her job was starting to affect her relationships. It seems that every Monday she wakes up with apprehension when thinking about going to the office and facing another week. Her dread made her irritable before the day started.
That’s not a good way to start your week or for that matter live your life dreading Monday mornings. Life is way too short to have your job influence your physical and emotional health, yet her story is unfortunately a common complaint among those seeking a better job with less stress.
The problem is two-fold; a super-charged global marketplace and a lack of acknowledging the warning signs that stress can send you. No doubt there will always be some measure of stress; however, not all stress is bad.
Stress is typically divided into camps of good and bad. Good stress keeps you focused and energized while bad stress can make you crazy by feeling overwhelmed wreaking havoc on your career and personal life. Learning how to recognize the warning signs of stress will not only increase your happiness, it could save your life.
It’s easy to recognize anxiety if you have trouble letting go of work, tossing and turning at night with stressful thoughts being replayed over again in your mind. In some cases, stress that is obvious can be your best friend in giving you warnings to take care; however, it’s the hard-to-control stress that can ruin careers and create unhappiness.
So many professionals have become accustomed to accepting stress as a part of their career that they may not feel any different physically, but on the inside it’s a different story. High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels tend to put pressure on your heart and because some of these influences are silent they cause the most damage.
The good news is you can control more stress than you realize by changing your views of it. Here are some ways to manage workplace stress:
• Acknowledge that stress is often related to your thoughts about yourself at work. For example, the more you are rewarded for helping the company succeed the more you tend to keep working harder, if you decline you be seen as less caring.
• A perpetual sense of urgency often leads to a stressful state of mind. The need to get everything done is a noteworthy goal however burnout happens when you fail to prioritize goals. Get clarity on priorities before you label everything as urgent.
• Managing stress often has a serendipitous effect in other areas of your life. Learning how to set healthy work boundaries combined with physical exercise helps you respond to stress in a more proactive way. Meditation can often put stressful events in perspective and the more you practice it, the more effective you will be at stopping stress before it gets out of hand.
• A job is replaceable; you are not. Sticking with a job that creates a constant state of unhappiness for you is not worth the cost. Everyone has their limits and creating a plan of action to find another job more suited to your well-being gives you a sense of control.
Managing work stress is possible and can be done when you start looking for ways to creatively solve problems, set healthy boundaries and staying positive even when the workplace is chaotic.
Have ever quit a job due to stress? If so, how did the decision affect other areas of your life?
