Is Your Job Making You Sick and Cranky?

We know that living in the 21st century can be similar to sitting on a rollercoaster zooming along at an incredibly frantic pace. It can be a challenging task to pull on the brakes and slow the rollercoaster down, refuel it, and attend to its maintenance, so it can run at its optimum level. Work deadlines, budgets, IR laws and regulations along with stiff competition can attribute to the speed and the intensity that keeps a person on their rollercoaster. If you do not stop your rollercoaster to fuel up, maintain and repair its mechanicals, it becomes unstable and can cause serious discomfort and tragedy.

If you are living your life similar to that of a speeding rollercoaster, and you don’t stop to take time out for relaxation and play, it can affect you mentally and physically.

Stress chemicals such as adrenalin, cortisol and lactic acid constantly flood the system and your physical body has no time to repair itself, therefore it begins to breakdown and malfunction.

You become susceptible to headaches, allergies, fatigue and immune system disorders such as flu, infections and disease. You become susceptible to unhealthy behaviours. It can cloud your decision making, and slow down your productivity.

Another similarity to a rollercoaster is that your work can become monotonous, boring and insecure. Stuck in an unchallenging or unrewarding job, or living with constant fear of retrenchment can also cause stress chemicals to flood the body, and over time, make a person sick and cranky.

To minimise or if necessary, reverse these effects it is essential to look if you have any timewasters that fill your day up unnecessarily, and then replace these timewasters with activities which will give you sustainable energy, motivation and good health.

Ditch Timewasters - For instance, do you do other people’s work or tasks, when they are perfectly capable of them? If you do, it’s time to STOP! When you are taking on other peoples commitments, they are not learning to take responsibility for themselves. They are unable to make the mistakes which are necessary for their own personal growth. It’s OK to say ‘NO’.

Be honest with yourself and write down any unhealthy habits which are eating into your day or weeks.
Take small steps towards minimizing these habits, and you will be rewarded with extra time in your day to use more productively.

Unreasonable workloads create poor performance and can lead to critical mistakes. Be honest with your boss and tell her/him it is physically impossible for you to accomplish an unrealistic demand, and then offer a solution needed to complete the task successfully.

Schedule a lunch hour into your diary and make sure you leave your office or your home, to eat lunch. Sit somewhere quietly and eat a healthy meal, -slowly. Be mindful of each mouthful; savour the tastes and textures of your food.

Separate your work from your home life.
When you arrive home from work and before beginning your home duties, sit in your garden or go for a walk. Soak in a bath or take a 10 min power nap.

Take a short break, a weekend away, or just get in the car and drive somewhere different for the day. Schedule it in NOW!

Meditate – Relax naturally and as often as you want. To reduce stress chemicals, take yourself away to a deserted island in the Bahamas fro 5-20 mins every day.
Or, listen to a visualisation CD and be guided to a peaceful place to Relax, Still and Cleanse your Mind Body & Spirit to totally bliss out….. www.gaeldrum.com.au/products.htm

When you ditch timewasters and replace them with activities which relax, energise and motivate you, you then have additional energy and motivation which fuels your productivity and inspires you to make the changes that are necessary for personal and professional growth.