Have you been finding yourself frustrated, huffin and puffin, each time you are heading to the office? And realizing that 1/ you don’t remember the last time you got excited about anything, not even that raise, 2/ you are mentally working 24/7 and getting lip service for “good job!”, 3/ you are approaching mental and physical burnout 4/ recession and layoff around you = for you no way out.
Glad you’re here cos this blog post is for you.
It’s normal to be flustered, annoyed, and even angry when we feel we have zero choice – because we feel stuck where we are and cannot see possibilities. But there is a way out of that stagnation.
And what needs to happen in most cases, is a change of perspective. Not gaslighting yourself into positive thinking or being in denial – rather, finding new ways to be back in the action of working for yourself and your future (the hashtag “be the CEO of your own career” stands more than ever in 2023).
1/ Identify the “need” behind your “enough is enough”
When frustration gets to the point where everything feels like a chore and everyone is an inconvenience, time has come to take a step back and find what’s going on. More often than not, the emotion itself is a symptom of a need that has either not been met or has been breached.
Back to the frustration at work, what is your number one complaint right now? What do you feel can make it better? Name the need: recognition, validation, being positively challenged, expanding – now keep this word close…. Let’s go to step 2.
2/ Find ways to fulfill said need
…is one of those proverbial “easy but not simple”, because, advance warning, when you start looking for something that can compensate for that “unmet” need, your brain will trick you into thinking that this is not the real deal.
But it is.
How can you contribute and share your experience and wisdom?
Volunteering, mentoring or teaching can help you be more impactful outside the familiar circle of the workplace and can be quite gratifying. I saw clients changing from utterly hating their jobs to actually feeling proud of their achievements as they are seeing their values from another person’s point of view.
Another way to get out of the resentment of over-giving and under-receiving? What could be a fairer exchange for you, once you have honored your paycheck?
Review your priorities and decide where to invest more of your time, attention and energy.
3/ Remove the toxic
This leads me to my next point: making space. Time to let the stuff that suffocates you go. From a personal perspective, decluttering should be an ongoing work of caring for your mental, emotional and physical space.
Your closets are overflowing? Re-organize, and donate.
Your schedule doesn’t let you breathe? Prioritize by keeping in mind your long-term goals.
BTW, decluttering also applies to the foods that make you feel meh, to relationships that are not energizing you, and to anything that doesn’t enhance your life.
4/ Find what challenges you (in a good way) and commit to expanding outside your comfort zone
Finally, my favorite thing to get out of the funk is to find something that challenges you in a good way, not too easy, not impossible either, and that 1/ helps build some momentum to motivate you to take bolder actions, 2/ helps you towards your personal and/or professional growths, and most important of all 3/ puts you back in the driver seat of your life.
In another word, turning the energy of “enough is enough” into what gets you closer to your future you!
Coaching Executives