Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Dying on the Job? The Simplest Life Hack to Jump-Start Your Life


Help! I Need a Way Out! 

💓Do you feel your life dreams slipping away as you slog your way through a job zapping your energy and numbing your mind and motivation? 

💙Are you feeling locked into a job that's going nowhere, but by the time you get home from work you're too tired to think clearly about how you're going to get out of this stagnant job?

💚Do you find hazy, unproductive thoughts rolling around in your brain's dryer drum, churning the same energy-zapping thoughts over and over again?

Stop driving yourself crazy with churning thoughts and start propelling your life forward. One simple life hack will make it easier to refresh yourself and think productively when stagnation shows up and life starts going downhill.

Life Hack: A strategy or technique adopted to manage your time and daily activities more effectively.



Stagnant Periods are Catalysts for Good

Listen up! Feeling stagnant at work isn't always a bad thing. It wakes you up to 'the time is NOW' to move your career forward. And as much as we hate it, being uncomfortable is the best motivator to spur us on to achieving great things.  

Attempt to ignore your discomfort and it will just build up until you're really uncomfortable and unhappy, and ultimately it'll compel you to change. So learn to endure those uncomfortable feelings, and sit in them until you're ready to change.  

Like pulling back on a rubber band, when the tension between where you are today and where you want to be is great enough, it will shoot you forward.

When it gets bad enough your discomfort will serve as the catalyst motivating you to do something to improve your situation. The discomfort prods you to discover the courage and determination to find your way forward.

'All things seemingly good or bad work in our favor'. You're not 'stagnating' if you use this period to plan your next steps, or you use it to prod you to develop a more effective way to deal with work and life. 

But to be effective, you have to set the stage so you can do your best thinking--and that's what the #1 Life Hack is all about.





#1 Life Hack to Jump-start and Refresh Your Life
If you're too busy on the job to think about moving on, and you're too tired when you get home, how can you break this vicious and tiring cycle so you can refresh your life?
You can insert an enjoyable habit into your daily schedule that allows you to be productive in your thinking. 

Effective, productive thinking requires two things:

💓A rested and alert mind. 

💓Your freshest moments of the day dedicated to you for free flow thinking.

What is the #1 hack to jump-start and refresh your life? Carve out 1-2 hours of uninterrupted 'me time' each day when you are freshest. Give yourself the first and best part of the day.


How to Insert 'Uninterrupted Me Time' into a Jam-Packed Day

Most of us just jump into life and do the best we can to figure it out. But before we know it we've boxed ourselves into a schedule that has us running ragged with no time to breathe, much less think. It is only after things go wrong and we're feeling stuck with no way out that we start asking questions.

When you find yourself boxed in it can feel like there's no way out. But there is. You must learn to rearrange your daily habits so you put uninterrupted dreaming time in the prime-time of your day.

We all have just 24 hours in a day. When we want to change up our lives something has to give. We can't fit something into our day without taking something out--even if that something we are removing is doing nothing or sleeping.

The trick to fitting 'uninterrupted me time' into your overfilled schedule is to ease into it. 

Start with one day a week. On a work day, set your alarm to get up two hours earlier. Ideally, find a coffee house or cafe close to work to get a cup of coffee and/or breakfast.  Take something to write on--whether tablet, journal or yellow-lined paper. Then start putting words to paper in whatever way they come out. 

💓Make lists of questions, feelings, ideas for new jobs. 
💜Make lists of job skills you've acquired.
💛Update your resume.
💙Make a list of complaints and what's bothering you.
💚Make a list of people you'd like to talk with about your career and/or life.
💛Bring magazines to tear up to create a vision collage.
💜Write letters you'll never send to people telling them how you feel.

There is no right way to get this started. The goal is to get in the habit of giving yourself the 1st and best part of your day so you can think about what you want to think about, and so you know you will always have time in the day for you.

Early on in my career I learned to get up early when no one else was awake to give myself 1-2 hours of creative thinking time. After satisfying my need to engage in calm, productive thinking, by the time I went in to a workplace filled with constant interruptions and meeting the needs of others I was less frazzled and more productive.  

At UCLA I drove to a coffee house near work at 6 am. This 'early bird gets the worm' practice allowed me to miss traffic jams, and it gave me two hours of uninterrupted time to think and study. I'd give myself this carved out 'creative me' time at least 1-3 times a week. On the weekends I'd take myself out for a special breakfast place by the beach early to give myself uninterrupted me time to think, study or play.

Later, when I had children and worked full-time, I learned to get up at 5 am to drink coffee and write. When no one else was awake I felt the world was mine and I had complete freedom to put my mind to whatever use I wanted to.


The Caregivers of the World Need Uninterrupted Time

Women are the caregivers of the world. We tend to be 'polychronic' by nature, meaning doing many things at once--especially for other people. Those of us who serve as the caregivers of the world, or perhaps working in customer service industries, especially need dedicated, uninterrupted 'me time' to center ourselves and have a fresh moment to think. 

In our daily work--whether at work or at home--we're pulled in every direction by others needing a piece of us. If we fail to carve out our freshest uninterrupted dreaming time for ourselves our sense of satisfaction with life will plummet.

We need to be able to process the everyday stresses and happenings (or not happenings!). We don't function well if we keep things bottled up inside or think we have no time to process our inner most thoughts, dreams and fears.



Bless Your Stagnant Workplace 
'We can bless each space we enter, leaving a sweet energetic footprint behind.'  Madisyn Taylor, 'Blessing Space' in DailyOM
Take time to ground yourself by gifting yourself with the best part of your day to spend on yourself. You will serve others better and more easily guide your life in the direction you want it to go. And you will carry your good will into your workplace making it a better day for you.

According to Madisyn Taylor of DailyOM, 'physical space acts like a sponge, absorbing the radiant of all who pass through it.' If you are feeling stagnant in your workplace, practice shifting the energy of the space each day by pausing to 'bless the space' upon entering and and leaving the space. 

This blessing of the space will be easier if you enter work having 1st given yourself the best part of your day to enjoy uninterrupted time by yourself. When things feel good inside, your surroundings will feel healthier too. 



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For more than 35 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes letting go and moving forward with life easier than ever before.


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2 comments:

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Sue, this is fabulous! Now I can't wait for the next person to complain to me about their job. I'll send them straight here! The great thing is you're telling them to do things that will put them into a proactive state, which will make them feel empowered, that they have choices.

Susan J Meyerott, M.S. said...

Exactly, Jean. You always get it! This is the #1 habit I wish for everyone to practice to get more satisfaction out of their life! Life isn't always easy, but it is better when we give ourselves uninterrupted me time in primetime!