10 steps to help you overcome work stress before it starts to affect your health.

With heavy workloads and employers expecting employees to take on the work of more than one person nowadays it can be really hard to stay motivated in the workplace. Trying to do too much can result in making mistakes, being made to feel not good enough and consistently second guessing everything you do. This slows down your progress and makes you feel even less valued, and not enough. If these emotions are not recognised and dealt with the employee can be left feeling undervalued and leave , or in the worse cases experience anxiety, panic attacks and waking up constantly in the middle of the night worried about work related matters. This then can affect their family and the whole world will seem to be against them.

Sound familiar?

Recognise you are not Superman or Wonder woman. Bosses usually give extra work to the busiest person as they know the work will get done. The efficient person will take on more work whilst the lazy employee sits back and looks busy. Learn to say ‘No’.
If you are not prepared to speak up nothing will change. This doesn’t mean going to your boss and moaning about your colleague’s lazy ways. What it does mean is arranging an appointment with your boss and discussing priorities. Make a list of 3 top priorities and concentrate on those one at a time until complete before you look at anything else. Explain to your boss how long you estimate each task to take and avoid adding anything else. You can only do so much ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’
Stop trying to be perfect, nobody is perfect, life is not like the movies or social media, people can only do so much and everybody makes mistakes. If you make a mistake learn from it, that is the beauty of mistakes.
Work on your strengths, know your weaknesses and find a way to delegate the jobs you are not so good at, this will result in more efficiency and a happier workplace.
Work on the now and stop worrying about the other workload, if it doesn’t get done it is your employers job to get you help, it only demonstrates more that your workload is too high if you are having to work through lunch breaks and after hours.
Invest in your happiness and health., nobody else will so it is your job to make sure you have enough ’me time’. Get out in the fresh air EVERY day, eat healthy, and do what you love at least once per week, e.g. take at least 2 hours out every weekend to do what you want and if anybody asks you to do anything tell them you are on annual leave and will be available in 2 hours. Share this with your partner if you have young children so that they can have the same time themselves.
When things suck or somebody puts you down don’t react. You won’t be the only person under pressure your colleagues and other employees will be too. Your happiness is dependent on how you choose to react more than your circumstances. If somebody is judging you or your work don’t react. Take time out to think about the feedback and view it without emotion. Was there something that could have been done better, ask the other persons advice and opinion about what they would have done and then view this objectively. If after looking at the situation without emotion and objectively you still feel the comment was unjustified talk to the other person and ask them straight out what they were wanting to achieve by making the comment. It is rare that the person would continue to be nasty if you ask them this, and it will often make them more respectful in future.
If you really hate your job that much it’s time to leave. We often view our salary rate as the most important aspect of our job, however work life balance and happiness should take priority. You cannot sustain a well-paid job for years to come if you are absolutely miserable every day, we spend too many hours working to be miserable.
Do what you love. Most people are an expert at something. Think about what you always wanted to do or what you would love to do and start working on it in your spare time NOW. Even just one hour per night will show a major step towards creating some new pathway after a year or two, this is how many entrepreneurs started. Stop procrastinating and write a ‘to do list ‘of what needs to be done and start working on it now. Nobody is going to knock on your door and offer you the perfect job it’s up to you to create it.
Gratitude. Think of at least 3 things in the morning and 3 things in the evening that you are truly grateful for. Things that have happened in the last 24 hours that have made you feel good. It could be as easy as a great meal you had, a snuggle with your partner, a laugh with a friend, a great cup of coffee. Feeling gratitude is healthy for the body and soul.