Be the Change

Imperative steps to prevent burnout!

The number of burnout cases in the USA are so alarming that government agencies, like NIH, are stressing out. These burnout levels are running rampant among United States healthcare professionals, with over one-half of physicians and one-third of nurses experiencing symptoms.

There is a lot of pressure on the CEOs of companies today. In the trends of today’s business, make sure to have three months’ goals, six months goals, nine months goals and one-year goals for your company development.

Consider your core values and what culture you wish to create. At what environment is your business operating?

As we go through the changes when a business is reinvented, it is critical to reevaluate and redefine our values, visions, and missions! This is an ever-changing process. In today’s volatile world we live in, we need to readjust, making short- and long-term goals, while planning how we will achieve them!

In this process, not everyone is at the same speed and awareness, therefore we react and approach differently. Many of us see that as a threat, and we do everything we can to avoid it.

The burnout happens from various causes over a period of time. It is a slow process and overcoming it will be a well-structured process that will depend on how open you are to embracing the change.

Due to COVID-19, the workforce environment is extremely stressful especially for all healthcare workers. The daily stress of change and uncertainty continue to escalate. The stress from lack of change management can manifest itself in many ways. Many employees and clinicians develop a negative mindset, trying to reject the change and looking for reasons why the change will not be successful. They focus on what could go wrong. Many studies have shown that ineffective change management will increase stress and contribute to burnout.

I would like to challenge you today to think differently.

See the big picture of our world. Not even 100 years ago, the population was around three billion people. Today, we are around eight billion people.

Now, we know that the weather changes, the seasons change, our bodies change over time. Everything is on the move. Why not accept the change and embrace it as a way that business is done? We know that technology has advanced and continues to at speed of light. If we embrace it, we all survive, revive, and thrive and our well-being accelerates.

Our response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job.

A constant tension exists between the desire and the discipline required to only commit to appropriately resourced work that is well aligned with the organization’s highest priorities.

Deep emotional stress, anger, and resentment can seriously damage your health. I realized that all the heart problems, and high blood pressure problems were the result of the emotional pain that we call stress!

When the stressors on our brain are continuedly triggered, neurons in our brain fire together on the same patterns; they wire together and our wellbeing declines.

The three key dimensions of this response include overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.

Tips to Combat Burnout

I recommend identifying a professional development activity that is entirely self-directed, ad-hoc and workable on a busy day. I have made it a habit over the last several years to keep a book of essays regarding management or leadership on hand. Stepping away from my desk for 20 minutes with an article to read and reflect on serves as one of my go-to methods, introducing a dose of professional development into my work. Even in the most demanding times, I can find 20 minutes for this task.

Clear, Concise Communication

You can manage your stress effectively, or it can manage you. Following are some of the most common stressors facing HR professionals and some tested tips on how to overcome them, pushing you to relax, regroup and rejuvenate.

Share with your tribe. Identifying the stressors that affect your job can be a start to a less stressful day. But identification alone will not be enough. The next step is to actually do something to make your day less stressful.

A vast body of research has shown that the most stressful jobs tend to combine high work demands with a low degree of control. If this sounds all too familiar to you, the time has probably come for you to take charge of your career.

Rekindling the Flame

If you’re no longer as fired up about work as you once were, you could be suffering from job stress. A little attention to stress management now could go a long way toward preventing total job burnout later.

Burnout has been recognized as an occupational hazard for various people‐oriented professions, such as human services, education, and health care. Caring for others requires compassion that we all need. However, it is crucial to find balance, as it will become a hazard otherwise. Within such occupations, the prevailing norms are to be selfless and put others’ needs first; to work long hours and do whatever it takes to help a client, patient, or student; to go the extra mile and to give one’s all.

Moreover, the organizational environments for these jobs are shaped by various social, political, and economic factors, such as funding or cuts that result in high-demand, low-resource work settings. Recently, as other occupations have become more oriented around customer service, the phenomenon of burnout has become relevant for these jobs as well.

Address the Conflict of Interest

Genetics of Burnout – How We are Wired When We’re Borne | LinkedIn

Inner wisdom unlocks the secrets about you, your past, and the events that have shaped you into the person that you presently are. Everyone has a story that begins from the moment they were born, but those early chapters do not have to define who you become and who you are at this moment in time. It is your past experiences that have had the greatest impact on your development as a human and spiritual being. It is also these past experiences that may be blocking you from fully living the life you were meant to enjoy.

Insights occur when you come to a deeper understanding of the hidden nature of things, or you perceive some new aspect of yourself—the hidden meanings of things or searching the past for answers to current problems.

Possibly one of the best methods is to start a journal. Each day spends time writing about your experiences in a journal. This is particularly useful when you have an emotional disturbance like depression or anxiety. The best indication that you need to record your thoughts is when you feel a strong negative emotion. Think back to the experience and try to remember what your specific thoughts were. For example, “Now I remember my strong fear of rejection before I opened the door to meet him.” These specific thoughts are useful to keep track of because they will help you uncover the core beliefs you operate on. The mere act of writing down your thoughts will cause you to bring them into awareness. As a result, you will become more responsive to similar thoughts that find their way to the surface of your mind.

In the end, whatever your mind chooses to pursue, make this a conscious choice within you, and choose love. The love will follow you and everyone around you as its energy is contagious. And that is formidable!

Try to control your mind, and not let your mind control you!

Our brain is like a computer chip, and what we put there gets stored. So just like a computer, we need to check and delete the old files that do not serve us and upgrade with new ones from time to time. Everything depends on what files in our brain we use at any given moment.

To make educated choices you might ask yourself the following questions:

How will this choice affect me in the short term?
What would the immediate effects of me choice be?
What ramifications could it have for me today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or even a year from now?
How will it help me now?
How would it hurt me now?
Are there any possibilities that I haven’t explored yet?
Who else can I ask that may have the experience to help me with this choice?
How will this choice affect me in the long term?
Figuring out how a choice will affect you now can really help you to decide whether the choice is even a viable option.
Will I still be experiencing the effects of my decision a year from now, five years from now, or ten years from now?
Will this choice result in something professional or worthwhile?
Are there any immediate or long-term benefits that could lead me or my business to a place of enhanced professionalism as a result of making this choice?
Will the results be worthwhile?
Often, we face choices that seem like they are clever ideas, but then end up realizing down the road that those choices did not really lend themselves to the creation of a professional image, additional revenue, or achievement of any specific goals.
Is this choice consistent with my goals?
Consistency is a key component to success. If you don’t currently have your goals written down, then I would highly recommend doing so before you start making big choices for yourself or for your business. Use the mind-mapping technique and the rule of five.

Awareness, meditation, mindfulness, and studying are critical and helped me to be aware of my limitations and the feeling of being needed. Authentically and empathetically have a conversation with the person who is asking you to say yes and check the tone that you are using when you say no, as it could be taken the wrong way. Keep in mind that when you say no it is not against them, it is for you!

Also, keep in mind that if you are being pushed to do something that is not your job, is something for which you do not have time for, or for your own reasons you cannot do what is asked, with empathy, just say, “I won’t be able to do that.”

You will save yourself with integrity and dignity by doing so and you will be helping yourself as well as everyone in your community. We are creatures of habit, so this is easier said than done. Do yourself a favor and get out of that comfort zone and check out how many times you say yes when the time and circumstances suggest you should say no.

Accept things as they are and stop trying to change someone, because it simply isn’t going to happen. The only person you can change is you!

Self-awareness is fundamental. We need to be aware of the limitations that prevent us from bringing abundance into our life and business.

So, decide if what you have is what you want and if it is, great. If not, you make the changes necessary to begin to live your life and career the way you want. Invest part of your time with your mentees in order to develop a good relationship based on honesty and your own credibility. Be able to offer a constructive critique of the reality of the employee when it is necessary.

Make your employees part of your vision and share the results. Have your employees adopted it? Do they like it? Are business goals being met?