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.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

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?

If you liked this post, then please share it:

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.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

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.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

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.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

To me this is a little bit like people at work, some seem to just blossom and grow great relationships and skills without much effort. Conversely others despite hard work get stuck and held back never getting to display all their talents. They get stressed, anxious or just burnt out.

How so? As any wise gardener will tell you the best way to a beautiful garden is to plan ahead, pay attention to the soil and match your plants to the terrain.

If a gardener chooses plants that don’t like the soil or the terrain then he becomes a slave to a regime of watering, feeding and protection. If he goes away then the plants and garden quickly fade in glory.

So how does this translate to you and me at work? Well taking a leaf from the canny gardener you need to pay attention to the right things.

Pay attention to the Soil: Regard your mind as the soil of your mental garden and know that it must be nourished to produce healthy strong and beautiful plants that flourish. So you must from now on encourage positive and constructive thoughts. Every eleven seconds we have a thought they say so start weeding out the negative and critical.

Match your plants to the terrain and conditions: Develop your listening skills so that you can accurately reflect what’s being said to you and by others around you. Practise this by saying back to the other person exactly what they’ve said. Don’t paraphrase use their words. You’ll find it improves your concentration and recall. It also is remarkably good way to help others make decisions or resolve their own issues.

Avoid weeds and Brambles Taking Over: When talking or in discussion get into the habit of checking in with your emotional state every now and then. It will help you be objective and not let your emotions take over. Letting emotions run high is the root cause to many conflicts because it’s impossible to listen in an emotive state. It’s like letting the brambles take a hold and strangle the life out of the plants.

Everyday find something that pleases you no matter how briefly and seemingly innocent it was. It could be the aroma of your morning coffee, exchanging a joke or funny story with a workmate. Savour the moment and your mind will start to seek out the good bits of your day.

Enjoy your Growing Success: At the end of everyday, like the gardener take a turn around your garden. In other words review what’s happened and appreciate your wins. Then quickly list the top three or four things you want to get done the next day. Your mind has a natural ability to plan ahead so let it imagine for you how to get these tasks done.

To the left of this page you’ll see instructions on how to download my free report, Symptoms of Burnout and how to Recover. It’s free and your e-mail will not be shared or passed on to any third party. You can also have some free advice via e-mail following the download.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

Random Acts of Kindness. Do something nice for someone else at work, or for your team, for your department or for your employees. Bring someone a cup of coffee without them asking. Go out and buy some ice creams for a meeting. Compliment people on their work. Ask people about their evening or their weekend

Clean Up Your Act. If your desk is a mess of paper and files it will affect your thinking powers so make some space. Find a place for all that junk. Either the bin or in the right place. Do it now, you’ll notice its calming effect.

Sit Up. Maybe you remember your teacher yelling at you to sit up straight. Well it was good advice. If you are slumping now in your seat take a moment and sit up in your chair with your seat bones equally balanced and your feet resting squarely on the ground. If you can get some proper advice on your desk and chair ergonomics. It makes a positive difference to your outlook.

Blow the Cobwebs Away. Get outside for a walk and commune with nature, even if it’s a case of looking up at the sky and noticing the clouds, or trees or even birdsong. Your brain and senses needs some air and the change of scenery will brighten your mood.

Of course if you’re having serious long term problems at work then the above will not make much
difference. If on reflection your boss or your organisation are not right for you, then it’s time to
make your escape plan.

If you liked this post, then please share it:

It was a terrible time as I was very stressed and de-motivated and yet tasked with achieving very challenging targets. The job market was not healthy and the only thing I could do was endure the situation

To help myself I had to devise a way of coping. I decided I needed a plan and very briefly here it is:

Personal Inventory of Success – Boost your confidence and reinstate your sense of achievement. Look over the past five or ten years of your career and work and celebrate your milestones. These could be your qualifications the plans and projects that you lead and completed.

Decide to ditch negative thinking - the brain is trained by your thinking. If you look for the negatives it will look for the evidence. Look out for what is going right and keep a journal to remind you and reinforce the positive.

Learn from Mistakes – If things don’t go according to plan, assess the situation and decide what you can do in the future to avoid the same happening again.

Make a Plan – long and short term. Everyday before you start work take a few minutes to decide what one important thing you’re going to do. It could be part of a big goal or a task that you can get done. Have a long term plan too over six months or longer of the things you need to get done and then chunk down in to tasks.

Review Highlights Everyday – As mentioned above train your brain to look for the positive. Take a few minutes at the end of the day to acknowledge what you achieved and how much closer you are to achieving the bigger goals. This begins the mental reinforcing and embedding of achievements and progress made. Also it helps you have some real evidence to show what you’ve been doing and what you’ve had to overcome.

Keep your Sense of Perspective – When you’re unfortunate to suffer the effects of poor management your motivation is easily sapped and your stress levels rise. Knowing your strengths and what you value in life and celebrating them helps you win through.

Collect your Evidence. In my plan I reviewed my work and performance and looked for any form of paperwork that showed I had indeed been working steadfastly towards goals.

With all of the above I felt more prepared and able to answer any questions about my projects and performance. The feelings of doubt subsided and I even made some progress towards the impossible targets I was set.

Then the boss suddenly left under a shroud of secrecy. Nobody missed her. But I was secretly grateful that the experience had taught me how plan for and endure the bad times.

Check if you are suffering with burn out and download my free report featured to the right of this page. Your e-mail is safe and will not be shared or passed on to any other party.

If you liked this post, then please share it: