Unapologetically Marie

Writer, podcaster, mental health advocate

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10 Tips for Better Job Happiness in 2021

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job happiness

Are you stuck in a job rut? Are your colleagues driving you crazy? Maybe you’re seriously questioning why you even picked your field in the first place?

Some people have no choice in the type of work they do – it’s just about paying the bills and putting food on the table. Other people spend years studying and enter a field of work only to discover that they don’t really like it! Other people (the lucky minority) find a job that inspires them. These are the people that say, “it’s not a job but a calling,” but even these lucky few don’t wake up every day excited to go to work.

Job happiness can be elusive… but there is a secret. It’s not the job that will bring you happiness, in the end it’s got nothing to do with the job. It’s you!

Many people who have found the key to happiness head off every day to unfulfilling jobs but have a blast anyway. I remember some of my most enjoyable jobs were during university when I was waitressing or serving coffees. I loved my team, and we had some great laughs, even though I only saw the job as a temporary thing to pay the bills.

You see, to find job happiness you need to be intentional about doing small things throughout the day to boost your mood. And here’s the best part, if you’re happier at work, studies show you’ll also be more successful in your career, getting more promotions than your grumpier colleagues. According to ScienceofPeople.com, if you’re happier at work, you’ll also be more productive and more engaged. You’ll also have better health and be more resilient, so when things go wrong, you’ll be better able to bounce back and move forward.

So how do you get greater job happiness? Here are 10 ideas and tips.

1. Start Off the Day on a Good Note

Happier.com describes this aspect of job happiness by saying that “researchers analysed the moods and performance of customer service representatives. Those who were in a good mood in the morning were more productive during the day and reported having more positive interactions with customers.”

Taking a few minutes in the morning for yourself to have breakfast and drink some tea or coffee can significantly affect how the rest of your day is going to go. Another option is going outside for a walk to get some fresh air or maybe even doing an at-home workout or yoga routine.

2. Help a Colleague

Helping others, in general, has been proven to make people feel more productive and better about themselves. It doesn’t have to be anything huge or lifechanging, but even just grabbing a quick coffee for a colleague can go a long way. Not only can it make your day better, but also theirs.

3. Make Progress and Acknowledge it

Happy chef

You may feel like your work sometimes goes unnoticed, which can be very demotivating. So, why not try flipping the script and instead of looking for extrinsic recognition, go for intrinsic motivation instead. Start each day by writing down some daily goals and get to work completing them. As you complete each task, cross it off your list (is there anything more satisfying!?) At the end of the day, you can look back and acknowledge your progress. Although this encouragement isn’t coming from a supervisor directly, this affirmation goes way deeper and providing a sense of confidence and self-worth that you give yourself… not that’s reliant on someone else.

4. Find an Alternative Career or Side Job that you Enjoy

Not everyone has the luxury of working in a career that they particularly enjoy. Whether or not this is true for you, it’s always an option to switch to a different career or find another job that brings you more job happiness.

As The Balance Careers describes, “no employee is happy at work every single day, and even jobs you are passionate about can sometimes be frustrating or tedious. But if your career is something you generally enjoy and feel proud of, you are more likely to feel happy at work.”

Whether you start a blog, or make jewellery to sell on eBay, or create artwork or any number of other side gigs, you’ll be in good company. In the U.S., about 36 per cent of workers are now involved in the gig economy, according to SmallBizGenius. In Australia, ABC News reported that close to a million people have a second job or side hustle. While it’s true that many of these people are simply paying the bills, it’s also true that many people are simply following their passions and dreams… and in the process finding happiness that permeates all parts of their life, even their 9-5 job too.

5. Take Responsibility for What’s Going On at Your Job

It can feel frustrating to feel out of the loop at work. Not knowing certain information or being uninformed about things going on at your job can leave you frustrated, confused, and dissatisfied. Instead of relying on others to keep you up to date on everything and involved, take initiative yourself to seek out information and make important decisions.

The research backs this up, people who are more autonomous and feel a sense of purpose at work are generally happier in their jobs. This is about being involved in decisions, contributing ideas and generally being engaged. So take control and get involved. You may find that your supervisors or colleagues didn’t even realise that there was a lack of communication.

6. Make Friends

Make friends for job happiness

Regardless of how your work environment is as a whole, making friends with your colleagues can change the environment completely. As an employee, you spend a lot of time at work. Feeling understood and valued by your colleagues can help you feel more encouraged and productive.

Having friendships inside of work can also bleed into your regular life, and every now and then, a friend you make at work ends up being a friend you keep for life.

7. Give Yourself Some Fun Rewards

If you don’t love the work that you do, you can try and use small rewards that are almost like bribery for yourself. Make a game of it. You could try something like, “If I finish this paperwork, I’ll order lunch at my favourite place down the street on my lunch break.” Or “yesterday I completed seven reports, and today I’m going to beat that and do eight.”

Although this is a very small way to keep things exciting and interesting for you, it’s a good way to keep yourself on track and productive in your work. You could even create a rewards jar, putting multiple rewards in there and drawing them randomly to celebrate your productivity.

8. Create a Playlist to Boost Your Mood

Music can change everything. It has been scientifically proven that music can raise your serotonin levels and make you happier. In fact, a recent study showed that music can foster interpersonal connections, growth and even healing.

So, unleash your favourite beats at work and watch your mood lift! When you’re having a rough day at work, turn up that playlist and crank your tunes. It might turn your entire mood around. Also, you can find many playlists on apps such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc. that are designed specifically to keep you productive at work.

Need some inspiration? Check out these 10 songs that neuroscientists say are the 10 happiest songs ever.

9. Organise or Attend Social Events for Co-workers

Remember when we mentioned making friends with your co-workers? This is the perfect opportunity. Sometimes in a work environment, it can be difficult to truly socialize because of the tasks you are trying to get done.

Attending a social event with co-workers can allow you to break these barriers down and allow you to socialise with your co-workers in a way that may not be possible in some work environments. Plus, it’s nice to go out and have fun every once in a while!

10. Smile

They say if you smile, the whole world smiles with you. So, I’ll leave you with a simple reminder that sometimes all it takes is a smile to turn your mood around.

Research from the University of South Australia confirms that the act of smiling can trick your mind into being happy. As you’re coming into work in the morning, make a conscious effort to smile at every person you see on the way in. If you’re not in a job where you see people much or often, you can simply smile to yourself to get the benefits of this exercise… you might feel silly, but who’s going to see you?!

Remember, at the end of the day, finding job happiness is up to you. Use these tips to help propel you forward and make 2021 your year of job happiness!

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and my email newsletter for regular updates & resilience resources!

Balancing Work Pressures With Health and Fitness

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Dade Bailey, corporate leader and personal trainer, talks about the importance of balancing work and health

We all know we need to do exercise. There have been hundreds, probably thousands, of studies into the positive effects of regular exercise. It leads to better moods, decreased stress, more mental resilience, more confidence, more energy, and I could keep going on. So, there is no way I could have a site dedicated to happiness and mental health, and not cover exercise.

Unfortunately, when we get busy, exercise is often the first thing we drop!

That’s why this week I’m interviewing Dade Bailey, who has had a very successful career in the corporate world, but he also recently retrained as a personal trainer. I spoke to him about the importance of balancing the pressures of work with health and fitness, and how to bring a bit more balance into your life.

You’ve had a very successful career with some big Australian brands, but there’s more to you than your professional career… Let’s cut to the chase: you’re buff.

<Laughs> Nice, thanks. Yes I’m Okay. So yes, but it took a long time for me to get here.

How much time do you spend working out or doing exercise each week and what do you do?

On reflection looking back, I always wanted to get to this point of being able to look in the mirror and go, yeah, I look good. I feel great. I’ve got a healthy balance, and it took a very big mind shift to get there.

The gym I’ve been with for 14 years called Hiscoes in Surry Hills [Sydney], is such a great gym, I did a strength challenge with them that was the catalyst. They really gave me the understanding of how muscle groups work, how nutrition needs to work, how building good longevity strength really would help. And that helped me set my mindset to where I am now.

Now, I’m at the gym about four or five times a week for my own personal training. I do different things, that could be strength training, high intensity training, but also it could be just something for stress relief – like going to kick the crap out of a boxing bag, or just going to do some yoga for active recovery. I really love Pilates – Reformer Pilates – that’s really good. So, four to five times a week because rest is so important as well. You’ve got to be able to allow your body time to recover.

Is balance something that’s important to you?

I think being in the corporate world for such a long time, exercise is always my outlet and going to the gym in the morning sets me up for the day, to really start my day off well. So from a mental health point of view, it was like, I’m ready. I’m walking in the office ready to take on the day. I’m feeling good. I’ve got all these endorphins happening. It’s great. Fantastic.

However if my nutrition wasn’t balanced and I was then going to eat an egg and bacon sandwich every day, and not really balancing my food, I wasn’t really complimenting my training well. Then then looking at other parts of my life and ensuring I have a balance in those areas.

When I lead teams questions I’d ask ‘are you exercising? Are you eating right? Are you sleeping right? How’s home life?’ To see if their life is balanced, and if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t be able to bring their best selves to work. At the start of each week, I used to ask my team “How are you feeling out of 10 this week?” To gauge how balanced they are heading into the week and how I could support them better.

Additionally I included exercise at work, instead of just having a 1:1 in a room, we’d go and have a walk and talk to do some exercise at the same time. Or have team meeting, we’d get out the building, so you were getting away from your desk.

Now I’ve become a personal trainer and I know a lot more about the sciences behind it, so going back into the corporate world is really going to help me as a leader to help my team thrive, so they get the best out of their work and bringing their best selves to work.

A lot of people join gyms and go to one or two classes and never go back. How did you find that spark or that passion to begin with?

As I said before there was a challenge at the gym. It was an eight-week strength challenge and I’m like, you know what, for eight weeks, I will commit. This is a short amount of time. Really commit. And even by week four of the eight weeks, I was seeing so many different changes in my body, how I was sleeping, how I was motivating myself. I changed myself from not being a morning person to being a morning person.

That’s huge!

It’s huge. I never used to be able to get out of bed. I used to sleep in and just go to work, but now I wake up at like 5:30 in the morning, quite happily.

Okay, I need your secret. We’ll get to that in a second.

But I think for me, it was that you’ve got to be able to help yourself and that was the mindset thing. You are the only one who’s going to be accountable here. You’ve got personal trainers that will help you, use them to help build out a program but it’s also “Where’s your commitment in this?” And I had to make a commitment to myself.

The corporate world is relentless, and it’s nonstop. And you have to find those moments to find that balance.

A lot of us are spending long, long hours in corporate world, and it’s becoming harder and harder to say no. What advice would you give to people to make sure they can find the balance in their life to fit in exercise.

Just from a personal point of view, after 14 years of working in an organization of the scale and the complexity that I did, I was really burnt out. And I’ve taken the time out to do some of the things I wanted to do, like become a personal trainer, which is amazing.

The corporate world is relentless, and it’s nonstop. And you have to find those moments to find that balance. As a leader in an organization, it was making sure that people came to work and they had a balanced life outside of work was my priority, because if they were wandering in and they didn’t have that balance, they weren’t able to perform at work. So for me, them making sure that they could do work flexibly if they wanted or being able to prioritize going to the gym classes that they wanted, or “hey, there’s a yoga class at four.” Go for it. You can. I know you’ll work to make up the hours. It’s about not putting restrictions on or being stuck in the old way of working of, “I need to see you at your desk from nine to five, and you need to produce X amount of widgets.”

Instead it’s like, “Here are the outcomes that you need to achieve. I expect you’re an adult and you’re able to achieve them. I will give you accountability to do that, and you work how you want. Giving people that freedom enabled them to be able to bring more of themselves to work and they were honest with me going, “I’m going through a tough time with this happening at home.” Okay, cool, at least I’m aware. But at least that kind of relationship really helped people bring everything they can to the office, and I created teams that thrive. And that’s where I’m always very proud of those moments. Because for me, if I’m running a team and they’re not living their best life outside of work, they’re not going to enjoy coming to work every day.

Absolutely. So obviously we all wish we had a boss like you! Were there any points in your life where you had bosses that didn’t subscribe to this idea? And how did you deal with explaining that you need to take time for yourself in order to be better for the organization or for your boss?

I had a boss who was a micromanager, and he really pushed my buttons. In the end, I learned that to manage the micro manager, I had to manage back. Okay, you want to know everything I’m doing? Here is a task list. Here’s everything I’m doing. You want to see that I’ve done all these tasks? Awesome.

Instead of them controlling me, I had to take control of them. But I also gave them honest feedback. I’d ask, “Can I just ask why you need to know this level of detail?” And sometimes people are just afraid of the boss. So just ask the question, “What was this to achieve? What’s the outcome?” Because for me, that kind of open and honest communication doesn’t happen enough in the corporate world. People need to ask the question “why” a lot more.

Have there been any times since you first started including exercise in your life on a regular basis that you haven’t been able to exercise, and have you noticed any impacts on your mental health or resiliency?

Absolutely. When in high delivery times, if I don’t get sleep and I don’t get to the gym in the morning, I go straight to work, I can sense my productivity levels dropping. I’m wandering in, I don’t feel energized, it would take me about two hours to get going. And people are bombarding me with questions and I wasn’t firing on all cylinders!

So that’s why it becomes so important to make sure you find that time and make sure that it happens, saying ‘this is important to my balance and the reason for that is to avoid two hours of wasted time as I wander in.’ Make sure you have the conversation as to why it’s important with your leaders to go, ‘this is me, this is why I need to do this. This is going to be better for you.’ This could be not just exercise, it could be making sure you’re dropping the kids off or going to swim class with the kids or prioritising a doctors appointment. As long as they let me know, there were ways we could make it work.

One time I noticed it started to affect my mental health was when I was leading the one of the biggest, complex change programs to deliver IT experiences to the whole organisation. It was consuming so much of my time, I started see my drinking habits go up each day, I was working longer hours, I was getting to bed late and sleeping in and not getting to the gym.

So I actually did a checkpoint, a kind of ‘put me at the centre’ activity and what actually makes me happy overall. For me it was flexible working, meaningful work, getting to the gym, making sure I’ve got time for my nutrition and making sure I’ve got time with my friends. When I started to protect those parts of my personal life, I felt the balance returning. I ensured I could cook on a Sunday night for the food for the week, ensured I limited my drinking to weekends, had conversation with my boss to come in a bit later so I could fit in my gym in the morning.  I really had to look at and put myself under the microscope and go, what makes you happy on a day to day basis from the outside of work. And what is work affecting of those pillars? And make changes.

I think it’s such an irony that when we’re needed most at work, we let down all the other areas of our life that keep us healthy for work.

But it’s also the ability for a leader to see that in their people. And for me now coming into a personal training side, I think I’m rounding out my skills in a very different way. Because it will be a very much, “well, what makes you ‘you’ outside of work? Is it exercise? Is it nutrition? How are you balancing yourself out? And how as a leader can I help that outside work operate well? What blockers do I need to remove to help free that up so you come into this office skipping?”

Can I ask you since you have been training and doing your certifications, what are some tips for people who are just starting out on their exercise journey?

Ask questions of anyone working in that gym. I’ve had the same personal trainer since day dot (Hi Mac) and he’s just so full of knowledge, like how bodies work, how you sleep, how exercise affects your energy levels – there’s so much knowledge that they have! Learn from them and really ask questions. They want to be asked and if you have a question over motivation, programs, technique or what is best to achieve your fitness goals, ask them. And if they don’t know they’ll know someone who can [help].

A lot of people don’t do the gym because they have a fear that they may look silly, don’t know how to  use the equipment or may go “ahh no, they look really fit, I can’t join that class.” But everybody working at the gym is there to help you. And yes, there are some people in gyms that are all there posing in front of mirrors or at the other end of the spectrum where they’re like, “Oh, my God, you had an alcoholic beverage, the world is ending.” But remember most people are there to better themselves. You’re all there for the same reasons, you’re there for health or want to look better for your wedding that’s coming up, or something like that. And there are people in that gym, with so many skills to help you achieve that. Don’t be afraid.

I know I was! I think I first went to a gym when I was 13 or 14 and those machines looked so scary. I don’t know if you remember going, “Oh my gosh, how do these work?” So would you recommend maybe taking a class to get started versus going straight for the weights equipment?

A couple of things that I’d recommend: most gyms overall should have some kind of introduction assessment. They should do a fitness assessment with you as soon as you walk in. Let’s sit down and get a baseline, let’s do some measurements. Let’s make sure you can know what your goals are, what do you want to achieve. A good gym will sit down and help you design a program and not only help you design a program to help you start to achieve that, but also show you how to use that equipment.

Regarding your point on the machines looking scary, they are built to help you ensure you’re doing your form correctly. Most should have a little illustration on them as how to use it properly, if you don’t have the confidence to talk to someone at the gym to demonstrate it to you. Otherwise, ask one of the trainers because they honestly want you to use the gym, use it safely, have correct form and they want their product to be used and for you to get the best results.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want to add before we go?

I think in summary it’s about finding balance overall. If you are completing exercise or want to start, then work with your gym on how to do that and remember your body needs fuel for that exercise. Complement this with great nutrition, getting the sleep you need sleep, ensure you have time for your own mental health and having time for enjoying life – you need to look at what factors of your life are really are important to you, see how you get balance across them and see how you protect them.

After all, we work to live, not live to work!

If you’re in Sydney, you can find Dade at Hiscoes gym in Surry Hills. Visit www.hiscoes.com.au.

How to Move on From Job Burnout

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Feeling Stressed, Overwhelmed, Angry or Frustrated? Like 1 in 4 Others, You Could be Experiencing Job Burnout.

A few years ago, I experienced job burnout.

I had a good job with a well-respected brand, and I was killing it – regularly receiving awards and praise. I pride myself on my can-do attitude, and I was often the person called upon to get stuff done, the more important and immediate the task the more likely it was to come to me. I felt appreciated and important, and I was relishing it. Life was good.

Then it wasn’t.

I started getting colds and flus all the time, but I never felt that I could take the time to fully recover. There was just too much to do! I put on weight, mostly because I didn’t have time to cook or prepare meals, and I had stopped playing sports because I was just too tired after work.

I felt like I was always racing against impossible deadlines, forcing me to work into the evening or weekends. I’d always chosen to work late before – almost feeling proud of the extra hours I was putting in to get the job done well – now I felt cornered into it. I’d lost control and always felt snowed under. I noticed I was always stressed. In fact, it became my new answer when I’d walk into the office in the morning.

“How are you?” my colleagues would ask while not looking up from their computers.

“Oh you know, a bit stressed, but OK,” I would answer as I started up my laptop, brushing it off but also secretly hoping someone would say, “oh really, how can I help?”

They never did.

Most concerning to me, I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep. Not since my university days had I lay in bed awake stressing about all the things I had to get done the next day. The difference was that at university, I knew there was an end to exam week. It was a couple of weeks of intense prep and sitting the exams, then it was all over (with a holiday to follow!). But this just wasn’t ending, and it was getting worse. I tried writing my to-do list for the next day before bed, I tried deep breathing to calm my mind, I tried over-the-counter sleeping tablets. Nothing was working.

So, I jumped ship.

I was offered another job in another team, and it was the circuit breaker I needed. I got lucky, but not everyone has such a convenient alternative waiting for them when things get too tough.

2019: The Year of Burnout

2019 was the year that the world stood up and took notice of this problem.

It started when the World Health Organization (WHO) added burnout to its list of globally recognized diseases, estimating that one in five children or teenagers and one in four adults will experience burnout in their lives.

This was supported later in the year by the World Economic Forum labelling burnout a “mental health pandemic” and then later re-labelled it as an “occupational phenomenon” caused by chronic stress.

Understandably, there was also increased discussion of stress-management, resiliency and workplace engagement as a result.

Workaholics Beware

Job burnout happens after prolonged job-related stress, and it can affect your mental and physical health. According to the Mayo Clinic, job burnout can include the following risk factors that you should look out for:

  • identifying strongly with work
  • lacking balance between your work life and your personal life
  • having a high workload, including overtime work
  • trying to be everything to everyone, or trying to do everything
  • working in a helping profession, such as health care
  • feeling you have little or no control over your work
  • having a monotonous job

Unfortunately, society today rewards people who put in the extra hours – the people who are first to arrive and last to leave. Also, now that many people have a work phone, the lines between work and home have blurred, meaning we’re only a phone vibration away from that latest email your boss sends at 10pm because he’s also trying to catch up.

If you’re a high achiever or simply passionate about what you do, you are at higher risk of burnout. And if you’re a workaholic, then watch out!

Job Burnout Symptoms

Burnout is a slow progressing state that you get to over time which can leave you feeling physically and emotionally exhausted as well as cynical and detached. Symptoms of burnout include excessive stress, insomnia, fatigue, sadness, anger or irritability, alcohol or substance misuse, high blood pressure, and decreased immune function leading to an increase in illnesses, among others.

If you’re experiencing any of these job burnout symptoms, you’ll definitely want to get that checked out by a professional (talk to your doctor). If you’re not experiencing these symptoms, but are nodding along to those risk factors, you might want to reassess your current behaviours.

The Ideal State

A Yale university study recently examined engagement levels in 1000 employees and found that 2 out of 5 were engaged and had positive emotions about their work and workplace. Another 2 out of 5 were disengaged, so they were at higher risk of leaving the company. The last group, 1 out of 5, were engaged but burned-out – reporting high levels of interest, stress, and frustration. Surprisingly, people in this group had a higher turnover rate than those who were disengaged. To extrapolate, high performing talent is coming into organisations, burning themselves out, then moving on.

It stands to reason for both employers and employees that the ideal state for workers is to be highly engaged, but not to the point of job burnout. Workers need challenging work, sure, but they also need support to achieve that work. In short, managers need to stop asking one person to do more than one person’s worth of work for long or indefinite periods. And employees need to stop treating constant overtime as a reasonable request. Also, if asked to do a short-term stint of long nights and weekends, the worker needs time off afterward to re-balance. As Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan wrote in Harvard Business review, “resilience is about how you recharge, not how you endure.”

Balance. That Old Chestnut.

While recovering is important in high stress jobs, it’s also important to put time and thought into how not to get stressed in the first place. And you guessed it, it’s all about balance.

There are three focus areas you should be aiming to find balance across. With small but powerful changes in these areas, you can keep some balance in your life and stop your job from leading you to job burnout.

When we experience job burnout, we let our job (the purpose and meaning circle) take over, often to the detriment of our relationships and health
  1. Put Work In Its Place – It Is One Part Of a Balanced Life

Remember, work is only one part of a balanced, happy life. Many studies have shown that we need to have purpose or meaning in our lives, and in today’s day and age we generally get that from our jobs. In fact, because our jobs take up so much of our times nowadays, they often become the main thing that gives us purpose and they often are inextricably linked to our sense of identity. What we do is very often how we introduce ourselves to others, and how we see our place in the world. So, yes jobs are important, but they’re not everything, and like with nearly all things in life, it’s about balance.

You need balance between what brings you meaning and purpose, and also between the other aspects of your life: your social connections and your mental and physical health.

You may only aim for balance between each of the three areas, whereas some people may also aim for balance within the three focus areas as well. This means aiming to have multiple things that give their life meaning, such as being a banker and a little league coach and a father/husband, or as we’re seeing more and more in today’s gig economy, you might be a freelance writer, a speaker and a change consultant.

If you have one job you’re passionate about, but your job has recently taken over your life (the red circle is the only or largest circle), then you should start by learning to say “no” while you are getting yourself back onto your feet. Talk to your boss about needing to find balance between work and personal life and agree that you won’t take on new tasks or responsibilities for a while until you can get back to a manageable workload. Also, take back your out-of-office life by agreeing on times you can turn off your work phone or silence alerts outside of work hours – then do it!

  1. Prioritise Your Mental and Physical Health

One of the first things that goes when we get busy is our physical health. With this one, start small if you want to make long-term change – the easiest way to fail at change is to try to do too much all at once. So, here’s some good news. Studies show that as little as one-hour of exercise per week, regardless of intensity, can show benefits. So, why not sign up for a 6pm gym class or sports league once per week. Tell your colleagues and boss so they can support you to leave on time that day. You could also find ways to get outside during your workday. Try walking meetings, or you could actually take your lunchbreak (gasp!), and when you do, find a park to sit in and eat lunch. Lastly, why not go for a hike with friends or family on the weekends – the benefits of being in nature are many.

Mental health is just as important as physical health, and they’re both intrinsically tied. There is a lot of information out there, such as be mindful, grateful, kind and generous. But if you’re recovering from burnout, or trying to, you may wish to focus on resting and recovering – also now known as self-care. So, take your holidays, get enough sleep, have long baths, Netflix to your heart’s content. Whatever it is that helps you unwind, make it a priority in 2020. Here’s some additional inspiration if you need it. Like with all things, you don’t want to overdo it (it’s all about balance!), but when things get busy it’s easy to forget we need to rest and recover too.

  1. Prioritise Relationships Outside of Work

What do people remember on their deathbeds? The people in their lives and the experiences they shared with them. Make sure you are prioritising your relationships outside of work, both at home and with friends. Find time to do activities with your friends and family, preferably face-to-face, such as taking holidays, going for walks, or having meals together. The benefits of having strong social connections are endless, and include living longer, being happier and being more resilient to illness, just to name a few. The great news is that you can roll #2 and #3 together sometimes for a double whammy.

If you don’t have many close friends and would like to have more, just remember, you need to invest the time. There is no quick fix here. The latest science shows that it takes about 200 hours to become a close friend with someone. So, try looking for a class or long-term activity that you can commit to that could help ease the awkward period between acquaintances and friends.

Why not make 2020 the year of balance? And if all else fails, you can just jump ship, like I did, and start again!

“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”

Gary Keller

Dealing with Burnout

Remember throughout it all that there are science-backed activities you can do to better manage your stress and build your resiliency. Check out the posts under the below topics for some ideas on how to manage your stress, or speak to a professional.

Community and Connection: Connecting with others and contributing to your community are proven to build emotional resiliency and make your life happier. It is so important not to neglect this part of your life, especially if it doesn’t come easily, like when work is really busy or if you’re a natural introvert.

Health and Wellbeing: Your health and wellbeing is critical to your happiness. Luckily, there is a wealth of information about how to make small changes to your life to make it healthier and improve your wellbeing.

Meaning and Purpose: Having a sense of meaning and purpose in life is critical to resiliency and living a happy life. You need it to thrive and flourish. It’s about having a reason to get out of bed in the morning, setting goals and having commitments. Some lucky people get that purpose through their job, but many of us get our purpose through other activities such as volunteering, learning or experiencing new things or caring for others.

Related content: Read Moving On article Stress Reduction Lessons from Marie Kondo, listen to our Podcast: The Importance of Having Fun In Your Life – Interview (E27)