When we were kids we always went to Southern Ireland for our holidays. One day we got lost somewhere in Connemara, my exasperated father hailed an old man who was leaning on his stationary bike watching the world go by. He asked him the best way to our destination. The old man paused, looked at us, then looked in to the distance, sighed turned and with a steady gaze back at my Dad said: ‘Ah well, I wouldn’t start from here if I were you.’

When you are going round in circles advice like can infuriate you. And yet it’s so true. Setting off from the right place will make your journey easier. When you know where you want to go or what it is you don’t want but still keep getting stuck or frustrated it’s a little bit like that story. You just can’t seem to find the way. That is up until now.

Let me suggest a cunning plan. It has helped many of my clients accomplish what they want with less stress and more fun. It’s a 5 step process:

As you are reading this you probably have already imagined the different ways you can now turn your frustrations in to positive action. It really is that simple, start at the right place and you will get there. Have fun.

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Are you fed up and feeling stuck at work or in general? Do you wish you felt more energetic and enjoyed your job?

It might be that all you need to do right now is get clear about your goals and what you want.

When you read this wish list what did it conjure up in your mind? Perhaps that customers are source of all problems? If so what effect do you think that has on the outlook of the customer service team?

Now look at these goals turned into positive statements, eg
Amount of praise received for a job well done.
Number of thank you notes etc. . . . .
How do you feel when you think of these statements? What would it be like to work for that kind of team leader?

I hope you begin to see how your outcomes and the outcomes of the company that you work for can be aligned and in many ways similar. There are always opportunities to make work more fun, and your organisation a satisfying place to work for. Success can be contagious, so why don’t you start the revolution?

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According to recent research, the average person has a different thought approximately every two to three minutes. Today’s work executives suffer especially frequent headaches at the end of their work days. The main culprit in this rash of executive stress and burnout in today’s world is negative thinking. Typical work executives spend so much time thinking and subconsciously listening to each of their separate thoughts that the negative mental banter that is allowed to
filter into their conscious minds becomes detrimental to their well-being.

Such negative thinking is triggered by seemingly harmless acts like:

The human brain triggers negative thinking through comparing our abilities and qualities against co-workers and friends. We also tend to criticize our own decisions and bad judgement and look down upon others for their own shortcomings.

It is this kind of negative thinking that will surely cause stress and burnout over time. So, what can be done to counteract these thoughts?

Just Do It

You’ve heard the famous slogan “Just do it.” It reiterates the fact that once you have stopped long enough to take the time to think about your actions, that internal mechanism that triggers negative thinking has been turned on.

Executives and others in the work force must teach themselves to think like an athlete and turn off that internal second guessing switch. The extra time taken to give your attention to that brief
negative thought is all that is needed to give your competitors their winning edge.

The result is a lost game or a blown deal that floods your mind and body with stress that surely will lead to burnout in a very short time. Go with your instincts and ignore the critical voice that causes that moment of hesitation.

How many times have you sat through a meeting with the boss only to take nothing but negative feedback away from the experience? Is the main problem often due to the lack of support from our superiors, resulting in an unhappy and unhealthy work environment?

What about overhearing or being involved in a conversation with co-workers that is basically a complaint session and self pity party? The bottom line is that morale in the work place suffers from the spread of negative thinking. The result is stress and eventual burnout. Negative thinking begins within each of our own minds, so it is there that we must begin to seek the solution.

In many cases, the true culprit behind the feelings of dissatisfaction and self doubt lies in our own style of negative thinking. Many of us tend to pick up on the negative comments and attitudes of others and exclude almost everything else, including all of the positive and uplifting points that have been made.

Take Action

Office life involves enough stress without each of us allowing our own thoughts to creep in and make things worse. Avoid that negative thinking and turn your office stress and burnout into a more positive experience for both you and your co-workers. Remember each day to ask yourself, what do you think?

Once you have become aware of your negative thinking style, you must take charge of your thoughts and keep them in check. Otherwise, you will slowly sink into a pool of doubt and low self esteem that you will surely drown in.

The true key to success on the job lies in developing and maintaining a positive mental attitude. Don’t leave your thoughts and decisions to chance. Stop your negative thinking and start making positive and healthy decisions that will aim you in the right direction.

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Talking to my dear friend tonight we started talking about a people related problem I’ve been tackling for long time.
She and I both agreed that the person in question was difficult to work or engage with as her demeanour was deary. It was then that she declared: “That’s the worst thing that anyone could say about anyone else. Imagine having that written on your tombstone. Here lies X, the deary person.”

That made me realise that indeed I needed to do some work on my demeanour. We communicate our feelings and intentions in many subtle ways and they are picked up intuitively. I am most probably causing this other person to feel a sense of dread when I come into view.

So I am going to concentrate on the outcome that I would like when I’m working with this person and imagine what that would be like to experience. Then I am going to let go of the outcome to free me up concentrate hearing and being present rather than in my head grumbling when we are together.

This should make the whole relationship dynamic a very different experience.

Life has many lessons for you when you are willing to act on them.

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Did you know that according to research you have a thought every 2 or 3 minutes? That equates to 12 to 15,000 a day? No wonder some of us have a headache at the end of a busy day.

But does all this thinking do any good or is it the cause of our stress and burnout? Because we get so used our mental banter we believe everything we say to ourselves as the truth. This can be to our detriment if it’s all negative and most often it is.

Slough of Despair
Negative thinking is easily triggered by such random acts as an exchange with your boss; by something you read in an e-mail or overhead. Typically our negative thoughts will be measuring ourselves against workmates or friends; criticising our own decisions and judgement or cursing others for their shortcomings. I confess to some of these thinking traits. But the important thing is the action you take once you’re aware of this critical thinking style. Left unchecked it will close you into a loop of self doubt and low esteem and then work performance suffers. Attaining and maintaining a positive mental attitude is the key to success.

Just Do It
Athletes are taught to delete their thoughts whilst in performance as this creates an unnecessary extra step to complete which could give their competitor the winning edge. You’ve heard of the famous slogan – just do it. It’s a case of once you’ve begun to think about your move you’ve switched on the internal judgement machinery.

Office and work life can be stressful enough without our own thoughts making it worse. How often have you been in a meeting with your boss and only picked up the negative comments? It is often cited that lack of support or encouragement from above is the cause of unhappiness at work. But it could be more to do with our own style of thinking and tendency to pick up the negative and exclude most everything else.

Develop a Positive Mental Attitude
Seriously though when you consider how much is going on inside our heads then it becomes doubly important that our thinking leads us to the right decisions and in the right direction.
So you shouldn’t leave it to chance what pops up in your mind.

So do yourself a favour and avoid the route to burn out and stress. Keep a useful check on your thinking by tuning in every now and then during the day. If it’s all critical thinking then delete or challenge them and start again. Keep in mind what you want to achieve for the day or week or month. Let that be your guidance as to how on track you are and what you need to do next. Developing this thinking skill will increase your creativity and help your conversations as you will be mentally gauging how the discussions are helping you or not.

What do you think?

Worried if you’re over stressed and heading for burnout? Then download my free report (see top left of page) to check out your symptoms and what action to take.
Or if your feeling blue and burnt out then my book Beat The Burn Out Blues will help you. It’s packed with techniques and strategies you can use immediately to heal you and build up your mental strength.

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