Bev Rosen
What would happen to your car if you constantly ran it almost out of tune and no oil in the engine? We would never treat our cars that way because, eventually, the engine would burn out.
In your personal and professional life, do you often feel like you’re running on empty? As women have become professional leaders, we are acutely aware of our imbalanced life styles.
We feel like we’re constantly running on empty, and we often feel as helpless about removing our internal obstacles and liabilities as we do about the rising cost of gas. When asked how we are handling our busy mix of personal and professional responsibilities, we just say we juggle one demand, then another.
This approach is constantly depleting us of any real energy. What happens to a juggler after a while? S/he inevitably drops a ball. The lack of resources, increased responsibilities, insecurity of your future, etc., combine with self-inflicted (and other) time robbers to make it inevitable that we will drop the ball, too.
There is a way, however, to not only to survive, but thrive in your high pressure work world. By adding more energy, getting rid of our dangerous beliefs and shifting into positive thinking, you can actually have more time and fun to maximize your work performance and balance your life and career.
Don’t Catch the Virus
First, how many people do you work with who have a negativity virus? They game, complain and blame all the time. This virus is catching, but you can choose to lead a life full of energy or fun or to adapt their negative attitude of the victimized “poor me.”
If things are going well, optimists give themselves credit for hard work; pessimists credit luck. If things are going badly, optimists would learn from their mistakes; negativists would always have negative self-talk and blame themselves.
We all accept the mind/body connection. An optimist’s mind would be dedicated to a healthier lifestyle — s/he would live longer, have more energy, have a more successful career and actually score higher on aptitude tests.
A pessimist’s mind would keep that body running on empty by neglecting him- or herself — through poor exercise, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, lack of relaxation and lack of self care — which would only weaken the immune system.
The power of a mind is forceful. It is the theory of self-fulfilling prophecy: The more you expect from a situation, the more you get.
When you look in the mirror, ask yourself, “Who is responsible for the stress I feel and the amount of energy I have?”
You have always at least two choices:
1. Change what causes your work/life balance.
2. Change your viewpoint. Make a commitment to look at the tasks you are doing and ask yourself if you are really committed to do all those tasks.
We already have identified that one way to raise our energy level change our view of it. We need to identify something as a challenge and figure out how to address it.
There is always a choice. You have the power to increase or decrease your energy levels and a choice about the way you do your work even if there is no choice about the work itself.
Tools to Heighten the Energy Level
1. Restore yourself. Balance sedentary with activity and balance activity with relaxation.
2. Simplify your life. Adopt a “less is more” mindset and let go of negative and critical people.
3. Know what matters. Spend time thinking about your values and principles, your important relationships and ways to stay healthy physically and mentally.
4. Control your life with wise choices. Create boundaries. Say “no.” Set reasonable expectations and enlist the help of family, colleagues and friends.
5. Plan and organize. Anticipate the things you need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Divide large tasks into smaller tasks, be prepared for unexpected crises and match your hard tasks to your high level energy cycles of your day.
6. Prioritize. Which tasks will bring me closer to my goals and enhance my relationships?
Bev Rosen, MSW, MBA, is the president of WorkWonders (formerly Motivating Wellness at Work). She can be reached at 410-583-1847.
