Stress Less Have more Fun at Work
Wednesday May 11th 2016
OMG, it’s already Sunday evening and in a matter of hours you’re going to be back in the work slog, so here are some ways to have more fun at work and get over your Monday-itis.
Monday-itis. It’s not an uncommon sensation to have and it will probably mean that we’ll fall asleep having pre-programmed the following day to be one of caffeinated drudgery and brute force. So can you turn it around? Is there a way to ease into the week with more positivity and even a sense of fun?
For most the answer is yes, says Muffy Churches, an internationally renowned integrative success coach. “You simply need a mindset refresh - a renewal of the thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that you connect to your job,” she says. “Consider the concept that the quality of your thinking generates the quality of your life experience. Based on this premise, your Sunday night trepidation may be a symptom of a collection of ineffective, selflimiting, default thought patterns that stand in your way of enjoying work.”
Here are five tips for transforming your dread into energised and positive anticipation.
1. Acknowledge the good stuff
One of the most powerful tools we have to play with is gratitude. It’s so easy to get lost in the grey clouds of what’s not working well in life that we can lose track of what is actually quite awesome. Take a quiet moment on Sunday evening to think about all the wonderful parts of your life, simple things that are working well. Notice the amazing shift in your energy as you take your head to that sunny place. Return to it whenever you need a lift. Sometimes a frequent focus on the good stuff allows the not so great to begin to take care of itself.
2. Have intention: Envision, enable, enact
Without a clear view of what we want our week to look and feel like, it can simply happen to us. Being a powerless ride-along is not something any of us ever intended to allow. Instead, try this: Become the director of your own movie and begin to see your week as you want it to be, clearly and in detail. If you can imagine it, it can become real. Next, enable yourself to begin to work toward this vision by giving yourself permission to override any disbelieving inner voice that may try to hold you to your old familiar ways of thinking about work. Finally
enact your vision by energising yourself to live what you’ve envisioned. Step into the new week as the new you.
3. Ramp up your fun factor
It’s easy to become serious and almost mechanical when work and home life are hectic. Everything needs to be accomplished so quickly and the stress builds. Our light and easy side is the first to go, so let’s revitalise it. Start by giving yourself permission to have fun even though you’re busy. Each morning when you wake up commit to
having fun today. Mindfully leave the more serious you behind as you walk into work. Having fun doesn’t mean we’ll be less professional, less conscientious or less productive. In fact just the opposite. Research shows that we perform at our best when relaxed, confident and at ease.
4. Manage your mindset
Have you noticed the way your day turns out tends to fall in line with your thoughts, attitudes and beliefs on that day? If you dread going to work in the morning it’ll probably feel like a long heavy day. If you envision a day of fun and high-energy that notion stands a good chance of fulfilling itself. Managing your mindset means making
strategic selections as to what we choose to think in order to produce the positive, feel-good and rewarding outcomes that we prefer. Author Mike Dooley is quoted as saying: “Thoughts become things, so choose
the good ones!”.
5. Think balance
Our happiness comes from within - we know this. Being at ease with you, loving others and exercising purpose and passions are what drives a fulfilling life, more so than money. If work begins to feel like drudgery, the big-picture ingredients of your life may have moved out of whack. Try rethinking priorities to make sure that your non-working hours are nurturing you.
Extracted from - Get It Magazine - May 2016 Muffy Churches