Remembering To Be Grateful At Work

Posted on: February 19, 2009 by Matt

I recently read an article over at The Digerati Life about stress at work and job burnout and realized that I have been suffering from a lot of frustration, anger and stress at work.  I have in fact been frustrated and angry enough that it has started to seep into my family life and cause a handful of blow ups between myself and my girlfriend.  After some long hard thought about the nature of my frustration we finally were able to communicate about my irritability clearly last night.

After our discussion last night about my frustration and the open communication (I am currently reading: People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts and would recommend giving it a shot if you have any communication problems) about my work I woke up with a fresh new attitude this morning.  With reports in about unemployment as of late and the U.S. jobless needing benefits at record highs - I really need to remember to be grateful to have have job. Sure, sometimes job requirements get a bit out of hand but at least I get a fair amount of slack when I need to work on something.

So in addition to remembering how grateful for having a job I need to be I am also attempting to reduce burnout and stress by:

  • Exercising: Going to the gym in the morning before work and going outside for a short walk (even 5 or 10 minutes) when stress starts to build helps greatly.
  • Communicating: Remembering to set proper expectations with clients and delegating tasks to consultants eases some of the strain.
  • Checking my attitude: My attitude is really all I can control.  If I stay upbeat and optimistic my day tends to go better.  The saying that life is 10% what you get and 90% what you do with it really holds true.

Has anyone else out there had some work related burnout and stress lately?  What have you done to get around it?  I know I also contemplated quitting and walking away a couple of times but so far I am still getting through.

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Tags     Filed Under: Health, Relationships

Comments (2)

 

  1. The Digerati Life says:
    February 19, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Glad to know you’ve taken steps to shake off the stress.

    I found that when I was working for the “man” in a 9 to 5 job, I was stressed over a lot of things — even the little things. Then I went into business for myself and found that even though I work twice as hard, I have experienced much less stress.

    I think stress is exacerbated by feeling “out of control” about some things. We feel frustrated and unhappy about certain things in life and the stress creeps up.

    When we feel in control and productive, there is positive energy and even if a lot of work is involved, the fact that our emotions are in a positive place, we are able to manage stress levels better.

    I learned a lot when I took the serious steps (and risks) to change my life over the last few years.

  2. Matt says:
    February 20, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Thanks for the feedback! I am in the feeling of “out of control” and working very hard to get back to a state of normalcy.

    Thanks for your post as well – it made me think about what was going on in my mind.

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