Blog Archives

Avoiding Burn-out

Posted on December 7, 2011 by sheryl

We’ve all all had those days when there’s a small voice in the back of our heads that says, “Here’s a quarter, please go call someone who cares.” At that moment you get it that unconditional positive regard doesn’t live in your chair anymore. Here’s some tips to help recover your energy, your love of your work, and your own unconditional positive regard – for yourself.

Tip #1: Give your attention to your own physical well-being. Stretch between clients, jog in place. Try the Cat Response. You know, when the cat gets up from her chair where she’s been for a while, the first thing she does is yawn, stretch, not in any particular way, although there is a yoga stretch is called cat stretch and downward dog. You sit still for 6-8 hours a day, discover ways to move that just feels good.

Tip #2: Give your attention to your own emotional well-being. You’ve spent your day listening. A few minutes at the end of your day to practice mindfulness can be very powerful. Breathing to quiet your mind and your internal emotional cocktail. Take the names of each person you saw today, or any other person that comes to mind. In your imagination, see yourself standing near a brook. Write the name of that person on a leaf, if you have a prayer practice, invite the Divine to bless that particular person/problem, and with that blessing, release the leaf onto the water, and watch it float downstream. Continue with each person until all that concerns you has been released, just for now.

Tip #3: Give your attention to your own mental well-being. Many of us have a job that engages our mental acuity constantly. The tip here is to find things that suit you that either quiet that mental chatter, like a mindfullness, or puts it into a hypnotic state, like TV, computer games. Some folks also find release in hobby type experiences that bring them into flow, that state where time stops and the moment consumes your attention. I’ve inserted a 15-20 minutes island in my day when I first get home, before preparing my dinner when I just sit with a glass of  wonderful cup of tea and watch the clouds go by – my own puppy-on-the-couch moment when I intentionally accomplish nothing, think about nothing, solve nothing.

Tip #4: Give your attention to your own spiritual well-being.  If you have a religious or spiritual practice, make sure that daily (2-5 minutes, even as you fall asleep) you turn your attention toward that focus.  If you don’t have any particular practice, use a few minutes at the beginning or end of your day to do something that brings your focus outside of your inner world – enjoy a moment in nature, connect with a pet, close your eyes and list the parts of your day you are particularly grateful for, enjoy music.  Even just focusing on your breath can quiet the monkey mind and give you some peace.

Posted in Create your Business, Just Stuck | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Dem Bones, Dem Bones”

Posted on August 3, 2011 by sheryl

Remember those cute minnows swirling around your feet as you wade out into the ocean? They have intact backbones and really aren’t succeeding. Neither are the jellyfish stranded on the sand in the outgoing tide. Many people understand that BACKBONE, will, drive, Hard Work and discipline are critical to success.

As we look at obstacles to business success, consider the obstacle of no WISHBONE – no time to set vision, create focus and intention. Yes, we talk about annually an quarterly stepping back to create vision and specific strategies, but have you considered bringiing that practice into the month, the week, the day, or even the next hour?  Setting vision for the day or the hour, is more like setting your intention for this day to be _______(productive, nurturing, energized, giving, fulfilling – fill in the blank) and holding that intention as you take on your action steps for that day.

What I see happening so often, is sitting down at my desk, with a carefully prepared list of action steps that may or may not match my strategy, then working very HARD with all my drive, will, discipline until my neck hurts, I’m cranky and I know, from my work on professional burn-out, that I’m on my way down that path, fighting the tide and finally ending up as food for the big players. [OK, that's a little dramatice, but you get the point].

To bring joy, success, as well as long term contribution in my field, I engage both bones. Here’s my check list:

  • Is what I’m about to do consistent with my intention for the day?
  • Is what I’m about to do consistent with my strategy for the quarter?
  • Do I have the energy to do this with my full attention and my full heart?
  • Can I do this from a place of power and energy, or from a place of just surviving?

No to any one of these questions may suggest that I’m driving and striving, just like those little minnows and maybe I’ll still be fighting the ocean when the day is done.  As you look at what obstacles may be limiting your success, consider the marriage of both your will and your self-discipline (BACKBONE) with your visioning, your intentions, and your heart (WISHBONE). This is the essence of linking the Law of Attraction to the Law of Action – and that marriage real Olympic Gold.

Posted in Business Strategy, Create your Business, Just Stuck, Law of Attraction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

FIVE TIPS FOR BURN-OUT THREAT

Posted on April 13, 2011 by sheryl

Last week, we chatted about whether that burn-out feeling is you or the job. What if you determine that the job is still exactly what you had signed up for several years ago, but you have changed. Sometimes it is you that needs to add some de-stressing resources to your bag of tricks. As the economy has gotten leaner and meaner, many people, both employees and business owners are trying to do more with less support. If you’re a counselor in an agency, you may find that your case load has remained the same, but the reporting demands have grown, and the staff meeting requirements have also grown. If you’re a business owner, you may have attempted to manage your own marketing activities, blogging, working with social media, attending networking events on your evenings and on your “day off”.

  1. Set non-negotiable boundaries for yourself. These may sound like “Work a 45 hour week most weeks, keeping those 45 hours in a five day work week.” If you’re employed and your work load has gotten out of hand, determine with your manager exactly which tasks have top priority and which can be let go when those 45 hours are filled. If your are running your own business, decide what tasks are mission critical, and which ones might be done with less than perfection, which ones might be delegated, and which ones really don’t need to be completed this quarter.
  2. Track for yourself when are your most productive hours for which tasks. I have a friend who is an artist. She has discovered that her most creative hours are mornings from 10-1, and late afternoons from 4-6. She organizes her day around those hours. When are you most effective at writing case notes or project reports? When are you most effective as a presenter?
  3.  If you must work during your personal unproductive hours, try one of these two strategies to help you be effective even in your “off” hours:
  • Take a quick, brisk walk around the building, breathing deeply – or do jumping jacks in your office, anything to get your heart working, your lungs working, and getting oxygen up to that tired brain of yours

OR

  • Take a meditation moment, sit quietly, breathing comfortably, progressively relaxing each part of your body, top to bottom with each out breath. Download, if you’d like a simple guided meditation from (OPL free gift) – it’s an MP3 file of only 3 minutes to support your resistance to burning out. The link is just to the right.

If you have any additional tips to help avoid burn-out, please share them here.

Posted in Just Stuck | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Does Burn-out Threaten Your Job?

Posted on April 6, 2011 by sheryl

You may have heard the story about the frog, when put in a pot of cold water settles in happily. When the heat is turned up ever so slightly, so that from one moment to the next there isn’t that much of a change, the frog will stay in that pot until fully cooked. For many, that is a description of their daily grind. It started out very comfortable, pleasant, really. Then over the months and years it seemed to change, but each week looks so much like last week, that you determine it’s you and not the job, and you’d better just stay put in that secure pot. Here’s some questions that might help you to determine if it’s the pot, or you:

  1. Is your energy and enthusiasm for the week’s challenges up or down? Do you drag your heavy behind to the office or do you step eagerly through that door?
  2. Does the prospect of another project make you roll your eyes, or does it trigger your creative juices?
  3. Is Friday an escape day or a day to look forward to the renewal of the weekend?
  4. When your clients or customers come to talk to you, is there a small voice in the back of your head that says “Here’s a quarter, please just call someone who CARES!”

Burn out can sneak up on you on little cat’s feet and undermine your ability to do your best work, as well as your ability to avoid depression and insanity. What are your strategies for getting out of that burn-out pot?

Posted in Create your Business, Create your Career | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Survival of the Fittest

Posted on October 17, 2010 by sheryl

I’ve been interested in a new (to me) author, Wallace Waddles. In his book, “The Science of Getting Rich” he focuses on the inner thought work that must be done to manifest your desire. Believing in the hypothesis that we live in an abundant universe, if I get my heart’s desire, you can, as well get yours. This leads to an entirely different way of being in the world that the Darwinian approach that I grew up with, the survival of the fittest.
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Posted in Frozen in Fear | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments