By Nmerichukwu Igweamaka
You may be the most enthusiastic person on Earth. Maybe you’re one of those bubbly personalities who make people laugh. Maybe you’re one of those people who are always ready to work and invest their full energy, no matter how great the challenge is.
You’ll still get tired, stressed, and burned out.
You have a family. You have a job. That’s enough to stress you out.
When you’re expected to deliver best results under any circumstances, the stress levels grow. Your boss is usually happy with your performance. They acknowledge your efforts and might even through a bonus here and there. But when you get too stressed out, they are not particularly prone to understanding.
According to APA’s Work and Well-Being Survey from 2016, more than half of employees believe that their organizations do not support employee wellness even though they offer workplace wellness programs.
Let’s get real: your boss can understand you’re having a bad day. However, they don’t want to and will not tolerate an employee who’s unable to manage work stress. A hectic day is a natural occurrence and you need to know how to handle it.
We’ll give you three important tips on how to manage stress and achieve high performance regardless of the pressure at work.
1. Recognize the Stress Triggers
What situations trigger stress? Sometimes you’re stressed out with no obvious reason, so you figure you’re just having a bad day. That’s not necessarily true. Stress is always caused by something, and you have to identify that trigger, so you can do something about it.
These are the most common causes of work-related stress:
Excessive workload.
If you’re really getting more work than you can handle, you must push yourself through it. Maybe it’s just a temporary situation because you’re dealing with a huge problem or there’s lack of employees. Your employer will probably provide bonuses for the extra efforts. But if the situation lasts for too long and you’re not seeing your employer planning changes, it’s time to talk about it. Explain that you’re getting more work than you can handle during the working hours.
Low salaries.
This is a serious problem. No matter how much you love your job, a low salary makes you feel miserable and unmotivated. Don’t hold back to ask for a raise if you feel like you really deserve it.
No prospects of career progress. If you reached a point that doesn’t paint a progressive future on that job, then you’re not motivated. You see no point in trying harder, since you already got where you planned to be. If this is the case, it’s time to invest in your professional skills. Take online courses that boost your qualifications and aim for higher goals!
Conflicting demands.
If you have multiple superiors, they all practice their authority on you. Sometimes their requirements are in conflict with one another, and you simply don’t know what to do. In such situation, it’s important to address the problem to a higher management level.
Journaling may help you identify your stressors. Write about your thoughts and feelings after a hard day at work. You’ll soon realize what exactly stresses you out.
2. Work on Your Response
So you identified the stressors. Surprise, surprise: you’re not the only one dealing with such issues at work. You may be different by the way you react to those triggers. It’s your response that makes you a failure or a success when you face such pressure.
So what should your response be?
Take a deep breath. If you admire someone, ask yourself: what would they do in a situation like this? What would the perfect person do? Ultimately, it comes down to the realization that this is just work. You have other aspects of your life, and you cannot allow your work to affect them all.
We’re not saying you should become a cold person. We’re not saying you shouldn’t try to solve things. We’re only saying that you should not allow a single moment to ruin your entire day. Be a true professional about it!
3. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is not just a buzzword. Yes; people use it even when they don’t know what it means. Yes; the concept is getting popular and diluted. But it’s still important, and it still helps you develop immunity against work-related stress.
In its simplest definition, mindfulness means awareness. When you’re aware of the present moment, you also become aware of your response to it.
If, for example, you’re working on a report and the deadline is impossible to meet, the average worker would get hectic. They would constantly complain, they would get a headache, and it would be impossible for them to complete the work by the given date.
A mindful employee, on the other hand, would be aware of the seriousness of the situation, but their approach would be different. They would think: “Okay… this is serious. I have to write the report and I have no other option. What can I do about it? I can ask a colleague to help or I can hire an essay writing service.”
You get the difference, right? Without mindfulness, all you can see is stress. With mindfulness, you still see the gravity of the situation, but you can stay calm because you’re focused on finding solutions.
Stress is just part of life. It’s a usual thing and most people learn how to get through it. When it gets too tough, however, it tests your limits. It’s a chance for you to show how strong you are and how strong you can get!