Mental health and resilience (both on the job and outside of it) is an increasingly important consideration for anyone. For a long time, I didn’t give it too much consideration. As my responsibilities at work have increased and as I’ve faced challenges in my personal life, the importance of tactics and strategies to optimize resilience is very clear. I shared my perspective about all of this at a recent panel discussion with the Canadian Public Relations Society (Vancouver chapter). Here are six ways to build mental health and resilience at work.
Set yourself up for success
Systems are really critical in order to prevent you from being overwhelmed, especially once work starts to really pile up. To best prepare yourself for stress down the line, create systems that help you catalogue, sort and execute on both short term and longer-term responsibilities. I use a combination of Outlook and Asana to keep things organized, but whatever you end up using, make sure that its compatible for your needs (some people love lists on a notebook) and able to scale as you get more (or less) busy. You can also consider the workplace routines you can build that will help you navigate difficult waters when you run into the inevitable chop.
Get professional help
I’m blessed to have a strong friend group, amazing family and a great network of colleagues at work. For most of my life, I had avoided utilizing professional resources (like a coach or counsellor) to support me because I figured I had it all under control. Then crisis struck and I realized how overwhelmed I was by my emotions. My resilience – particularly at work when under fire – was being tested. Having a professional to help guide you, ensure your confidence stays rock solid and provide you with a thoughtful and introspective perspective into the challenges you are facing has been very valuable. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot – after all, what do you have to lose?
Ground yourself
One thing I learned from a speaker at the panel was the importance of grounding yourself when making difficult decisions or coping with stressful times. The exercises she recommended was to take a moment, before making an important decision, to centre yourself, adjust your posture, take a few deep breaths and then take time to observe all of your senses – what do you smell, what do you see, what do you hear, what do you feel? This approach to grounding can play an important role in helping keep you keep yourself centred in the midst of a professional storm. This can also help with breaking bias leading to better decisions.
Set mental (and physical) boundaries
Setting boundaries has been a new tactic for me, but a very important one. It helps control the stress, box it in a bit, to help you chart your path forward and through it. A few tactics I’ve found effective for doing this include:
- Look ahead into the future a year: Then ask yourself, will I still be stressed/worried/upset about this looking back a year from now? Odds are usually strong that you will not be.
- Be aware of what’s in your control: We can only control how we act and respond to an issue or problem. We can’t control how others act and winding yourself up about this can be both counter-productive and maddening.
- Create physical space by taking a vacation – one of the most important lessons I learned in 2019 was how to take a vacation. For me, this meant clearly doing a handoff, delegating responsibility to a deputy and then turning off my email notifications of my phone and “forcing” myself to not check my inbox. The difference this brought in terms of restful recharge was a game changer for me
Affirm your decisions
One of my favourite books is Principles by Ray Dalio.. I’ve often utilized the lessons of the book when weighing and deciding on difficult subjects. Committing to your principles early helps create clear guiderails and justifications for your later decisions. It also avoids you from second guessing. At the same time, having thoughtful affirmations to go back to in times of stress is a valuable way to manage through a difficult work situation. Here are a few of my affirmations that I remind myself of when facing challenges:
- Let go of fear (of failure) and focus on doing your best
- Embrace vulnerability and through it learning
- Be reflective – what would Obama do?
- Operate from a place of confidence and integrity – state the facts thoughtfully
- Be the solid rock on which the lighthouse stands because the storm will pass
Connect yourself
Your problems aren’t just your own. They are shared by those who care about you including your manager, your peers, your friends and your family. One of the most important things I’ve learned when facing crisis is to ask for help. In so doing, you sacrifice some privacy for the ability to lighten the load. In my experience, this has made all the difference.