Word-Of-the-Week #947: Burnout
September 29, 2022 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #947: Burnout
Burnout – physical or emotional exhaustion, especially as a result of long-term stress.
Has the pandemic caused you to experience heightened personal and professional demands? Have you felt a diminished sense of personal accomplishment?
This week features excerpts from Washington Post, “What burnout really is. And ways to prevent it,” by Angela Haupt.
“Summer Sides is a go, go, go type of person. But by late last year, all the fitness instructor wanted to do was pass mindless hours in her home, undisturbed – venturing no farther than her backyard. She was suffering, she said, from massive burnout.
Sides, 37, who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, had opened a yoga studio on March 1, only to shut it down 18 days later and pivot to the Wild West of online programming. At the same time, she was taking care of her dad, who had suffered a stroke the previous year.
She started getting migraines, and brain fog clouded her days. By winter, she was utterly depleted.
“I didn’t mentally have the capacity to figure out another piece of spaghetti to throw at the wall,” she said. “It was like a pressure cooker: One thing after another kept getting a
dded in, and all of a sudden there wasn’t enough space, and the lid was going to blow.”
As weary Americans emerge from a harrowing global pandemic – and, in many cases, a period of heightened personal and professional demands – experts say burnout is a common affliction.
“People are overwhelmed and exhausted and still feeling like they ought to be doing more,” said Amelia Nagoski, who wrote the 2019 book “Burnout” with her sister, Emily Nagoski. “I think it’s almost everybody everywhere.
- Defining burnout
Burnout has become a popular catchall phrase in the “language of the people,” said Christina Maslach, a professor emerita of psychology and a researcher at the Center for Healthy Workplaces at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Some people use it to mean they’re bored – like, ‘Oh, I’m getting so burned out on Pilates.’ Or, ‘I haven’t had a creative idea all week.’ So, it’s like a lightbulb has burned out as opposed to a fire that has burned out,” she said. It makes sense that people have latched on to the term: “It’s very catchy – the visual imagery of flames and ashes and all that kind of stuff.”
According to the Maslach Burnout Inventory, burnout occurs when three factors are present at the same time: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment. In 2019, the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an occupational syndrome – not a medical condition – based on those same three components.
Emotional exhaustion is characterized by feeling depleted and like you don’t have any energy, Maslach said. Depersonalization, which is also referred to as cynicism, is “a hostile, take-this-job-and-shove-it attitude,” and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment means, well, exactly that. People experiencing professional burnout will be overwhelmed by their own alleged inadequacy and notice that their productivity plummets.
This week’s focus is on burnout. Do you ever feel depleted and like you don’t have any energy? Are you feeling cynical with a hostile attitude about work? Do you feel overwhelmed and stressed out often?
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Word-Of-the-Week #946: Mental Manipulation
September 22, 2022 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #946: Mental Manipulation
Mental Manipulation – to adapt or change one’s mind to suit their purpose or advantage; positive self talk.
Do you have a hard time recovering when things don’t work out as planned? Do you tend to “sweat the small stuff?” Are you able to “make the best of a bad situation?”
This is the follow up to last week’s WOW on options. And today I will share the last 2 FUN-damentals to get you started on the “Positive Attitude Programming Process” that I have come with over the years that work for me and the people that have attended my speaking presentations.
So now, how do you psyche yourself up when you have to do, or deal with something that isn’t pleasant, FUN, or that you just plain don’t like doing? First you make the choice to either love it or hate it. What I do is think of how much worse my situation could be. (Somebody always has it better than you and many, many, many more have it worse than you.)
- FUN-damental # 4 – Mental Manipulation Coupled with Selective Amnesia
When all else fails you need to make up a story! I think Martin Seligman, Ph.D., the author of “Authentic Happiness” says it best. “Happy people remember more good events than actually happened, and they forget more of the bad events. Depressed people, in contrast, are accurate about both. Happy people are lopsided in their beliefs about success and failure: If it was a success, they did it, it’s going to last, and they’re good at everything; if it was a failure, you did it to them, it’s going away quickly, and it was just this one little thing.”
He also says, “When we are in a positive mood, people like us better, and friendship, love, and coalitions are more likely to cement. In contrast to the constrictions of negative emotion, our mental set is expansive, tolerant, and creative. We are open to new ideas and new experience.”
- FUN-damental #5 – Shift Happens
The power of a positive attitude affords you maximum flexibility – you can adapt, change, and even evolve so that you can respond appropriately. And, with your new positive attitude, you can expect to enjoy your work environment more thoroughly as you laugh and find the humor in everyday rituals. And when you do that you can expect to achieve a higher degree of team work and cooperation from your fellow colleagues. You can also expect to appreciate the differences and idiosyncrasies of family members, close friends, and life partners. As they say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
When you take control of your life (and not let it run you on “auto-pilot”) – and you make conscious choices – you will fully realize the power you have in the “Positive Attitude Programming Process.” It is then that you can expect to realize your work, personal, and relationship goals. And that is when you start having FUN at work and on the playground of life!
This week focus on positive self talk. Can you allow yourself to have a little selective amnesia? How well do you handle situations that don’t work out exactly the way you wanted them to? How would it feel to shift your thinking?
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FUN-photos: Sippin’ in Sonoma
September 20, 2022 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-photos: Sippin’ in Sonoma
Got a Great little Getaway – hadn’t been in 16 years!
Reservations required made for…
nice leisurely visits to the wineries.
Word-Of-the-Week #945: Options
September 15, 2022 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #945: Options
Options – the act of making choices and decisions.
How easy is it for you to make a choice or decision? Do you like having more than one option?
This is the follow up to last week’s WOW on P.M.S. Today I will share with you the 3rd FUN-damental to get you started on the “Positive Attitude Programming Process” that I have come with over the years that work for me and the people that have attended my speaking presentations.
So now, how do you psyche yourself up when you have to do, or deal with something that isn’t pleasant, FUN, or that you just plain don’t like doing? First you make the choice to either love it or hate it. What I do is think of how much worse my situation could be. (Somebody always has it better than you and many, many, many more have it worse than you.)
- FUN-damental #3 – Mary Poppins Principle
“A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
My forever man and husband Chris had a job that entailed meetings every day. Now that would drive me nuts, but hey it was his job and he loved it. When we first started dating I remember him telling me one evening about the next day’s meetings he had and he said, “Oh man, (heavy sighing) I have that @#*@ meeting tomorrow.” As it turned out, he only had that meeting once a month. And guess what he said the following month the night before that meeting? Oh man, (heavy sighing) I have that @#*@ meeting tomorrow.” Well, clearly we had a pattern here. And that would be a “negative pattern.”
So the next month when he said, “Oh man, (heavy sighing) I have that @#*@ meeting tomorrow.” My reply to him was, “What are you talking about? You LOVE that meeting. It’s your favorite one!” And he looked and smiled and laughed. That was the beginning of his “positive attitude programming process” with regard to that meeting. And every month when the dreaded @#*@ meeting happened, he then said with delight in his voice, and maybe a bit of sarcasm too, “Oh boy, I have my favorite meeting tomorrow!
And the point is – You make a “Conscious Choice” by choosing to not let those meetings or things you have to do be a drag and set yourself up with a “bad attitude.”
This week’s focus is on your options. Are there any parts of your job that tend to be a drag? Have you ever thought of changing your thoughts about it? How would it feel to “love something” that you haven’t liked before?
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Word-Of-the-Week #944: P.M.S
September 8, 2022 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #944: P.M.S
P.M.S. – Positive Mental Spirit: the invisible bubble around your body.
Would you say that you tend to be persistently positive or persistently negative? Are you able to not let another person’s bad mood affect you in a negative way? How do you spend the first hour of your day?
This is the follow up to last week’s WOW on transformation. Having a positive attitude is often given as a secret to success. So if you want to be successful then you need to know how you get it, hang onto it and spread the fever to others! Today I will share with you 2 FUN-damentals to get you started on the “Positive Attitude Programming Process” that I have come with over the years that work for me and the people that have attended my speaking presentations.
- FUN-damental #1 – Have PMS Everyday!
I’m convinced the first step is you have to have tons of PMS -“Positive Mental Spirit!” PMS is like a giant bubble around your body and it’s invisible. The more positive you are, the fuller it gets. You’ve got to protect and keep nurturing that bubble with positive thoughts. I know from firsthand experience there are people out there whose only mission in life is to try to mess with your bubble. You’ve heard the expression, “Don’t let that person burst your bubble.” Which is why you’ve got to keep your bubble full at all times. And full of positives, not negatives. Some people have toxic waste and excess baggage in their bubbles. Those are the people you want to stay away from at all cost!
And the point is – If you can’t avoid negative people in the course of your day do not allow them to penetrate your “positive bubble.”
- FUN-damental #2 – Hour Power
I believe the first hour of your day is reflective of how your whole day will be. You set yourself up to be positive or negative. If you’re running late because you didn’t plan enough time to get ready, that is a negative. I like to get up slowly, have a cup of really hot coffee and plan my day. In total silence! That is a positive for me. What does your perfect first hour of the day look like to you?
Then I like to take a nice 45- minute walk after my coffee. Not because it is good for me; but because it makes me feel good. And if you need proof that walking will help make you more successful the latest research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition states, “People generate more creative ideas when they walk than when they sit.” I have found that when I take a break when I’m stumped and let go of the problem the solution will come to me.
The point is – You will make time for those things that are important to you! Being prepared for the possibilities, challenges, expectations, etc. of what your day will bring is a big positive.
This week’s focus is on having PMS every day. How would it feel to not be affected by someone else’s bad mood? What does your perfect first hour of the day look like to you? Are you making time for those things that are important to you and that you enjoy?
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