3 Life Skills To Focus On This New Year
You’ve made it into another year, congratulations!
As 2024 begins and we all start heading back to work, it’s easy to let the productivity crunch and need to do more start creeping up on us. And before you know it, the overwhelm, anxiety and stress of everyday life is back again.
But this doesn’t have to be the case. This year can be an entirely different year for you, with a little effort.
These three life skills are fundamentals that will provide you with a preventative shield from overwhelm and burnout. From understanding job burnout signs, to change of habit, radical honesty, and tips on how to be more present, they serve as guides for you to better navigate the complexities of living without burning out in 2024.
Job Burnout Signs: Recognising the signs
The first step towards a more balanced life is acknowledging the signs of burnout, whether in your personal or professional life. Radical honesty becomes the cornerstone of this process. Watch out for:
Constant fatigue: If every workday feels like an uphill battle, and you find yourself constantly drained of energy, it may be a sign of impending burnout.
Reduced productivity: A noticeable decline in your ability to meet deadlines and accomplish tasks could indicate more than just a temporary slump—it may be a red flag for burnout.
Emotional exhaustion: Feeling emotionally drained, detached, or experiencing a sense of hopelessness about your work are clear indicators that your emotional well-being is at risk.
Understanding these signs enables proactive intervention, preventing the negative spiral of burnout from taking hold. Once you recognise these warning signals, it becomes essential to take the necessary steps to address them.
Active Burnout Prevention: 3 Life Skills To Learn
Nervous System Regulation and Change of Habit
Once these signs are recognised, the focus shifts to regulating the nervous system. Transformative habits play a pivotal role in burnout prevention. Instead of succumbing to unhealthy patterns, change of habit by adopting small, positive changes can be transformative.
Take short breaks: Incorporate short, effective breaks into your routine. These breaks can involve a brisk walk, stretching exercises, or engaging in somatic activities. These activities not only provide physical relief but also contribute to mental rejuvenation.
Allow your body to move and release: Process your experience through movement. Allow your body to release your emotional stress by adding more movement into your daily habits while processing what you are going through. And I’m not talking about just going to the gym. Incorporating things like a walk in nature, stretching and other somatic exercises like the cooked spaghetti exercise.
Brain-effective breaks: Implement strategies like setting a timer for 10-15 minutes of screen downtime. Turning on grayscale on devices during work hours not only reduces blue light exposure but also enhances focus. These breaks allow your brain to disengage from the constant demands, promoting mental well-being.
Mindful doodling: Embrace "brain-effective breaks" through activities like mindful doodling. This isn't just about passing time; it's a deliberate effort to engage your brain in an activity that disrupts the cycle of over-analysis and worry. I recommend this style of doodling for burnout more than journaling as it can serve as a mental cognitive pause, offering a unique way to process emotions without falling into the trap of overthinking. With journaling, we can still fall into that spiral of over-analysing.
How to Apply Radical Honesty
Radical honesty is the antidote to the world’s superficiality. Acknowledging and confronting your feelings fosters self-awareness, enabling you to take proactive steps to address the root causes of burnout. Here's how you can apply radical honesty in your day-to-day life:
1. Guide your feelings through the Feelings Wheel: Utilise tools like the feelings wheel to pinpoint and describe your emotions accurately. Rather than settling for the first word that comes to mind, delve deeper. For instance, if you're feeling "stressed," the feelings wheel might uncover nuances such as feeling overwhelmed, anxious or even excited. This specificity allows you to acknowledge and own your emotions fully.
2. Provoke detailed descriptions: When expressing your feelings don't settle for vague descriptions. Challenge yourself to provide detailed explanations of what and how you feel. Being really specific in identifying the word that describes how you feel, allows you to properly acknowledge it and then own it. In this way, you can build up your emotional differentiation skills so you can understand and apply different coping strategies to release and process your emotions.
3. Express vulnerability: Radical honesty involves expressing vulnerability without fear of judgement. Be open about your struggles, fears, and uncertainties. Sharing these aspects of yourself not only fosters a deeper connection with others but also liberates you from the weight of unspoken emotions.
4. Cultivate self-reflection: Take time for regular self-reflection. This can be in the form of journaling, meditation, or simply quiet contemplation. Ask yourself probing questions about your thoughts, actions, and emotions. Honesty begins with being real with yourself, and self-reflection is a potent tool for this purpose.
5. Own your story: Embrace your narrative, including both strengths and vulnerabilities. When you own your story, you gain agency over your life. This authenticity is the foundation of radical honesty. It's not about presenting a curated version of yourself but rather acknowledging and embracing the entirety of who you are.
Radical honesty is one of the vital life skills that provides not only preventative measures against burnout but a gateway to a more authentic, connected, and fulfilling existence. Remember that radical honesty starts within—the most honest conversations you'll have are with yourself.
Strengthening Resilience and How To Be More Present
As life skills go, resilience is vital for navigating uncertainties and challenges. Here’s how you can cultivate resilience and how to be more present in your daily life:
1. Acknowledge worries as reality: Resilience begins with acknowledging worries as an inherent part of life. Instead of viewing uncertainties as impossible obstacles, recognise them as opportunities for growth and learning. By accepting worries as a reality, you shift your mindset from one of resistance to one of adaptability.
2. Being present: How to be more present involves redirecting your focus from the past or future to what is happening right now. This helps you cope better with uncertainty. Here are practical steps to enhance your presence:
Mindfulness practices: Engage in mindfulness practices such as meditation or mindful breathing. These activities anchor your attention to the present moment, fostering a sense of calm and clarity.
Gratitude Journaling: Keep a gratitude journal to regularly reflect on and appreciate the positive aspects of your life. This simple practice shifts your focus towards what you have rather than what you lack.
Conscious Engagement: Actively engage in your daily activities with intention. Whether it’s savouring your morning coffee or fully immersing yourself in a work task, conscious engagement enhances your connection to the present.
3. Be alert to unconscious habits: Strengthening resilience involves cultivating alertness to unconscious habits that may hinder positive changes. Whether it’s starting the day with a new routine or embracing a challenge, your brain might generate automatic resistance. Recognising and overcoming these resistance patterns is key to building resilience.
Foster adaptability: Set activities that challenge automatic resistance, fostering adaptability. Consider starting your day with a cold shower. Observe the automatic excuses your brain generates, such as "it's too cold" or "I'll try it tomorrow."
We might not even notice this resistance - this is how we shut down the opportunity to really act and sabotage our will power. When you stop following your own instructions, you stop trusting your own words, and this makes it easier to get distracted and get stuck in a loop of dissatisfaction. You must learn to consciously challenge these excuses to overcome resistance and build mental fortitude.
Assess your routines: Regularly assess your daily routines. Identify areas where resistance or automatic excuses may be hindering positive changes. This self-awareness allows you to consciously choose actions aligned with your goals.
By incorporating these life skills into your life, embracing the present becomes a conscious choice, empowering you to navigate life with grace, purpose, and a profound sense of well-being. As you strengthen your resilience, remember that every moment offers an opportunity for growth and a chance to sculpt the resilient, present-focused life you desire.
Conclusion
Now more than ever, we ask ourselves: what does it take to live a good life? In the coming year, it’s time that we prevent the burnout instead of merely managing it. Being aware of job burnout signs is your first step of prevention. And through change of habit, radical honesty, and learning how to be more present, you can paint your own unique picture of happiness.
With these life skills, I hope you can foster 2024 that is not only about success but also about balance and fulfilment.
Yours,
Beata