Bring That Zest For Life Into Your Job
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 19, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 24
Written by: Reshna Patel, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you at times wonder what made you apply for your current role? It’s Monday morning, and you’re heading into work. Whilst on the train, you reminisce the great weekend you had filled with laughter, love, and all those positive thoughts you felt. Your face gleams with joy, and your energy is vibrant as ever. You start to replay in your mind how you intend to plan out the coming week and who to meet after work.
As you arrive at the office, you are greeted with familiar faces, all eager to share their weekend stories. Whilst you settle down at your desk with your calm demeanor, you start to sift through the emails noting the urgent ones. For the first couple of hours, you imagine this is how you would like your working day to be, less stressful with calmness surrounding you. As you near towards mid-morning, you start to notice the shift in your behavior towards your work. Your pace starts to speed up with the tone of the emails. Your mood goes into fast work mode, trying to keep up with the given deadlines. With this, the pace of your heart starts to beat faster with incoming and outcoming calls, colleagues, and management liaising with you stopping you from your work. While you try and adapt to things swiftly, your mind’s attention moves from calm to getting slightly irritated and anxious. As the morning passes, that vibrant feeling has completely faded. You feel like a human-robot just typing away, and before you know it, you realize it’s lunchtime and then remember you even forgot to snack in between. You contemplate whether to step away from the desk or to eat whilst carrying on working. Although your mind tells you to keep working, your stomach starts to growl, calling out that it's hungry. As the afternoon comes by you, notice you’re getting busier. Your mind feels frazzled, tired and you find yourself crouching in your chair. In the background whilst the music is playing softly from the radio, that thought of having an easy day gets drowned by the endless ringing of the phones and business conversations amongst the team. Finally, it’s home time, and as you gaze at the clock on the wall, you wonder whether to leave on time or put in the extra hours. Your mind goes into overthinking mode, at which point you choose the latter by wanting to complete everything and not leave things pending. As you start closing up the office, a sense of feeling flustered, fed up with the stressful day, passes through you. Whilst waiting for the train home, that vibrant energy which once shined in the morning is nowhere to be seen on your evening face. Instead, your face is filled with fatigue and feeling overworked. You start to resent the role and wonder why you even applied for it if the responsibilities outweighed what you originally applied for. Your mind starts to ponder in thinking maybe it is best to look for other roles which are less stressful.
Once at home, you wind down for the evening, and as you enjoy your dinner, you remember the day’s activities, emotions, and thoughts.
You start to weigh up the pros and cons of the role. The pros could be the nearby location or within an hour’s journey, excellent salary and pension benefits, flexible working hours, and having a good team. Whereas the cons could range from feeling overworked, pressured, losing sleep due to the long hours, and feeling stressed.
You see, we always look at how the role affects our daily life, but we never ask ourselves. Why did we choose this role? What was it about this role that made us apply for it?
We need to get in the mindset of what it is about the job that really made us go for it initially. Was it because we knew we were capable of handling a prestigious role in the company or was it due to the fact our experience was on a senior level and that we were able to manage the responsibilities tied to this role? Once we know our “Why” we are here in this role, then our day-to-day emotions and thoughts can be understood.
Alternatively, any time you feel out of place, always tell yourself, “It is okay to feel like this, I am doing the best I can in a job I simply enjoy and love doing.”
By turning the negatives into positive, our daily mood will also start to shift:
Negatives → Positive Action
Feeling tired → Go for a 20-minute walk and stretch
Lunch on desk → Eat away from the desk or outside
Stressed → Close your eyes take a deep breath in, and breath out slowly
Overwhelmed → Prioritize your work using time management
By doing these actions, you will notice that throughout the day, we can manage any obstacles that may arise, and we will be in control of our moods and how we work. On the contrary, there will be times when you question your role, and this is when you can appreciate the skills you have accumulated by resolving any problems that may have arisen: Gaining resilience, being more organized, confident in your role, being productive, determined, ambitious, creative, persistent, tolerant and flexible.
So, bring that zest for life from your first day on the job and notice the difference!
Want to learn more from Reshna? Follow her on Linkedin for more info!
Reshna Patel, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Reshna Patel is a Professional Writer who uses her creativity and expertise to help clients effectively communicate their story, vision, and unique message. She specialises in crafting high-quality content, including blogs, articles, and web pages, all optimized with on-site SEO to improve visibility. Her writing flair emotionally connects with target audiences, bringing your business to life.
