5 Daily Practices For A Renewed Mindset

Burnout is often the last thing we attribute as the cause of our stress level, but it’s one of the top five reasons for the stress in our lives. Once it’s present it takes a lot of effort to stop the flames from fully engulfing every area of your life.

Public Servants, non-profits, and first responders work with purpose. They naturally want to help their communities. Some see more misery in a week than most people see in their lifetime. If one worker helps ten people a day, five days a week, that’s fifty people they have encountered. That means they heard the heartache, misery, defeats, and discovered barriers of fifty different people. The mental and emotional exhaustion is overwhelming and often leads to feeling callous over time because nothing seems to be helping anymore. The hope that they can make a difference starts to deplete, but they know they still have a mission. And so they continue while being burnt out and overworked, now too tired to be effective. But again they pursue the more prominent mission.

The mission is to serve. They know they are part of a bigger team. While each works in their area of expertise, agencies rely on the other organizations to help in their individualized specialty. Together they can help repair the broken person sitting in front of them. They serve in their jobs, not for the money because studies show that public servants, non-profits, and first responders are underpaid for the type of work they do. The position includes long hours, sometimes mandated overtime, and taking work home with them (even if it’s only in their thoughts or prayers). It’s stressful, to say the least, no wonder why so many are operating under burnout.

How do we extinguish the flames before the burnout? We have to make a conscientious effort to change the way we think.

It takes twenty-one days to make a habit. A habit is something that is often done with little effort or without awareness that it is even being done. Wouldn’t it be great if we habitually focused on the good, the positive, the solution, and the joy?

Focusing on the solution takes away the power of the problem. If you are problem-focused, you may miss whatever light might shine through at the end of the tunnel. Train your brain to have solution-based thoughts. Ask yourself what works. That’s the only way to get a solution to the problem. For example, if someone has a relapse, we are not asking about the relapse, we asking about the sobriety to see what was working in that period.

Feel burnout creeping into your cubicle? Try these five things for twenty-one days to train your brain for joy and avoid the burnout.

1. Think of three things you are grateful for at work. It could be that you are grateful for the opportunity to be employed, your co-workers, or air conditioning. It only has to be three things every day. As time goes on and you work on your self-care, the list might change. It may transform into things like the people you get to help, the opportunity to learn about more resources, and new approaches to help your needy population.
2. Write one down. It only takes one written note of appreciation to remind you of something wonderful all day. Every day may not be good, but there are good things found in every day. Keeping focused on something positive will help improve your energy, joy, and attitude.
3. Exercise. This is great for self-care as it helps improve your overall health. It strengthens your body muscles, allows you to work through frustrations and releases endorphins. This is an instant pick me up. This can look like walking during breaks, visiting the gym before work, or walking around your block in the evening after you get home.
4. Complete a random act of kindness. Studies show that you feel better when you have done something good for someone else. Pick up an extra cup of coffee for a friend, offer someone a ride, or leave a note of gratitude for someone whose actions were exemplary for the week. Even choosing to smile at everyone who crosses your path can count as a random act of kindness.
5. Meditate. This will look different for different people. This can be prayer, reciting affirmations to yourself, listening to music, or just focusing on how your body is reacting to breathing, moving, or feeling. You can take that time to think about what went well for the day. This should take about five minutes minimum.

Twenty-one days of positive thinking and practicing these five things can help you extinguish your burnout. It can help prevent fanning future flames to ensure you’re in top shape to serve in some of the most important roles we have for serving our community. On that note, thank you to all of our public servants, first responders, and non-profits that work hard to make a difference in the lives of others in practicing human kindness. Your efforts are appreciated and aren’t unnoticed. Keep up the good work.