You are healthy and full of energy. You rarely get sick, and you are on the go almost all the time. You are sociable and outgoing. You like people, and they like you. You are smart and creative. You enjoy using your talents and capabilities. And at work, you are passionate about achievement.
That might sound like a perfect description of success on the job. Trouble is, that can also be a perfect description of someone who is headed for complete burnout and stress.
Experts say that the personal qualities which create peak performance at work are also the qualities that may push a person towards excess stress. They contend that those overachiever qualities cause a person to overdo and “overgive” on the job, that is, to inadvertently give more and more time and energy to work at the expense of self-nourishing activities that will provide balance.
Month after month and year after year of constant stress, relentlessly pushing ahead, can lead to trouble. Burnout is the gradual erosion of one’s energy and spirit as the result of chronic, relentless long-term stress. Stress creates a condition that is totally devastating once the person involved feels that he can no longer exceed or conform to the demands of everyday work. For this reason, it is extremely important to know and learn how to manage stress.
There may be many stress management tips available in society today, but unless you understand what you are experiencing, you will never learn how to manage stress. Hence, here are some tips that will help you identify the causes of your stress and then teach you how to manage them:
1. Know your enemy.
People decide not to smoke because they have been educated about the consequences of chronic smoking - it's death in a carton. In the same way, you need to be educated about the potential risks of chronic overwork. That way, you can decide not to let your job overwhelm you because you know the end result isn't worth it. The number one way to manage stress is to be well educated about what stress is.
2. Remember that you are not your job.
Experts say that one of the leading causes of stress is over-identification with work. If you believe that your career is the key to expressing and fulfilling yourself, you will over-identify with your professional role. At that point, your success at work becomes your primary source of self-worth. Therefore, you end up working harder and harder. It is a self-administered poison.
What is the antidote? You need to ask yourself who you are besides your role at work. You need to find out how to express and enjoy your individuality outside that role.
3. Internalize goals at work.
The secret that keeps some people resilient, alert, happy, productive, and balanced at work is the ability to internalize corporate goals. In other words, take the goals given by your company and your boss and make them your own.
The happiest and most productive people are able to see organizationally imposed goals as their own. They think, “Yes, that will benefit me. Yes, I accept. Yes, I am going for it.” Unless you think in those terms, it is easy to feel resentful and get overwhelmed by work obligations.
No matter what you do, a toxic work environment constantly creates more stress, and you just have to accept the fact that stress is unavoidable. The only thing you can do is to master it and learn how to manage it correctly.
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