Zen Success

Juggling Multiple Roles

You have to juggle multiple roles, and as a result, you are often overwhelmed and stressed. You focus on work at the cost of your personal life, and sometimes it is the other way around. Don’t let this starting line distress you more. It is possible to be a team player, a leader and find that Zen balance to happier lives in your professional and personal life.

Competition and stress surround you in today’s world and whether one likes it or not. You work twice as hard in many aspects of life, be it professional or personal. You wear multiple hats, and successfully juggling all your tasks is an acquired skill. You are a child, parent, professional, manager, homemaker, dreamer, and achiever at different times.  It is like you are with one body but donning other avatars. You want to be strong and confident in all that you do, which comes with a cost.

It often costs your self-esteem and health. It costs you your work-life balance. Soon, resentment and stress become an accepted way of life. It would help if you learned to step back, pause and introspect. It would be best if you gave yourself the time and much earned validation to feel confident, which usually takes a beating as you navigate through these multiple roles in life.

I am sure everybody can resonate with this exciting definition of work-life balance.

Is the Concept of ‘Superman’ a Myth?

Are you on a quest to be an achiever, or are you just living without any thought or focus, just tiding through life as it comes? Does too much work that you add to your plate overwhelm you instead of boosting effectiveness?

It may be harder for you to climb the corporate ladder with this mindset.  Is that making you aggressive, irritable, and tired instead of enthusiastic? How can you claim both success and happiness back to your life? Maybe you are devoting more time to work and feeling guilty in the bargain. Perhaps you want to focus more on your family, children and don’t know how to find the time. Does it deplete your energy and put you in constant stress?

Stop Pushing Yourself Too Hard!

Everyone constantly struggles to give their best to the different roles they play in life. You are not alone. However, you need not live life this way, and this awareness is the first step to change. It is good to push your limits, but it drains you when this happens in an unstructured way. Contrary to what you believe, taking it slow helps get a better handle on your work and life.

Escape from Stress

While smoking and drinking socially may not be harmful, it can be short-lived, increasing addictive dependency as an escape from stress. Another way to cope with stress is by procrastination, denial, or ignoring the problem at hand. You start to play the blame game: My office staff never reports on time, why can’t my children be more responsible. The list is endless.

Defeat Your Fears

Your body needs the rest when the symptoms are shouting out otherwise. It could be the aches and pains which doctors have no remedy for; it could be some gene issues or just that niggling headache. How many times are you in denial when there is physical or emotional abuse? You might want to ignore and wish the problem away, as you have no time or energy to deal with them now. Yes, it takes courage. It takes courage to say ‘No.’ Yes, there is fear. But everything you want is often possible if you defeat your worries.

When you recognize the problems and pitfalls, you want to change. Often all it takes is to take a step back and take a deep breath. Sounds so easy, yet it is powerfully effective. These few seconds are enough to allow your brain to move from stress to Zen. It gives your brain the power to analyze and prioritize.

Let it Go; Find the Balance

If you want to give your best in all the roles at work and home, be an enabler, a team player,  you need to validate your effort and achievements. Give yourself love. It is ok to make mistakes. You can learn from them, however difficult the lesson may be.

1. Prioritize
   Learn to prioritize and let go of what is not essential, what you cannot handle now. By limiting your activities, you feel less overwhelmed and more prepared to devote your 100% to each of them.
2. Empathy
   Empathy helps one look at issues from another perspective while not necessarily agreeing with it. Try to understand a colleague’s point, sometimes beyond work. It will lead to healthy conversations, even if it is a difficult one.
3. Appreciation and Feeling Heard
   Appreciation and feeling heard are great tools to offer, to gain trust and respect. All these steps help you to define your boundary. It automatically makes you assertive and confident. It boosts your self-esteem, image, and self-worth.

The more you exercise these mindful practices, the more you will access the creative brain and find that perfect balance. It helps stay away from resentment and stress. It will allow you to blossom into a strong, confident person with abundant energy. This energy will help you re-invent yourself, be creative, and help you take calculated risks. You can maintain a healthy, happy work-life balance.

Want to get inspired? Surround yourself with quotes that aid your Mindset Shift. I have compiled a few for you to download on my resources page. Visit the link the get it for free!

Impact of Workplace Negativity

Workplace negativity is an increasing problem today and often results in loss of confidence, control, and harmony among peers. This lockdown has changed lives, changed people, and transformed personal and professional life to a great extent, and this negativity can significantly impact morale and productivity. To help curb this problem, here are seven ways by which you can minimize negativity in your workplace.

1. Praise and Recognition

The power of a few kind words or praise is remarkable and can uplift anyone’s mood and motivate them to work harder and better. Compliments act as a reward system in our brain, much like chocolates to the baby. While one can’t always tell how the other person feels, a few kind words can make anyone happy and cheerful. It is somehow natural to be a miser when it comes to offering compliments. It would help if you noticed the excellent work done by your colleagues, your team members, and even your family and friends and lavish them with words like thank-you and excellent.

2. Open Communication

More often than not, ineffective communication practices in the workplace are the root cause of frustration and negativity. Instead of showering angry words up at a coworker, take them aside and communicate why you’re stressed or upset and discuss how to prevent it from recurring. It will enable you to distress, calm down and look at things with a fresher viewpoint. It is essential to have a shared understanding of the work to be done and the other person understanding the end goal.

3. Building a Solid Company Culture

Every organization has a set of core values. You must ensure everyone is aligned on these core values. It would lead to higher productivity as well as a higher motivation among employees. Senior management must be mindful of these values and communicate the same consistency throughout the organization. Building a culture takes time, but it offers substantial benefits. Values and culture form the background of the family and society. Cultivating a traditional family value adds to the strength of the family.

4. Opportunities to Express Opinions

Factors like pay, job location, working hours, working conditions, overtime hours, dress code, etc., are essential to every individual. Changes in these areas, especially when you are not part of the change, can result in serious questions, negative responses, and concerns. To help minimize friction due to changing policies, organizing meetings at regular intervals helps everyone voice opinions. Regular discussions help address any issues before they turn into significant problems. The same is true at home as well. It is also essential to give children a platform to voice their opinion and felt heard. The final choice can, of course, be with the parent. It will bring about a massive energy shift. It adds a ring of empowerment and confidence to people.

5. Recreational Facilities

According to the India Employee Survey, 22% of respondents felt that their productivity was low because of overwork and stress (reference). Creating a games room with fun games like a pool table, chess, karaoke, carrom, and even gaming consoles helps people enjoy and take breaks to feel rejuvenated. It will enhance and enrich the bonding and spread positivity. A break now and then also helps your brain recalibrate from stress to Zen mode.

6. Offer More than Just Money

A study conducted by Princeton University in 2010 indicated that higher income increases happiness only up to $ 75,000 per year (reference). However, beyond that threshold, higher income doesn’t increase happiness. Various other factors come into play. At workplaces, employees value the following:

• New challenges to tackle
• Meaningful work which can make employees feel that they are making a difference
• Visibility for consistent performers
• Diversity among the workforce
• Creative perks such as free gym memberships, family vacation, etc.

By ensuring that these factors are incorporated, one can improve morale and create higher productivity at work.

7. Personalizing Workspace

If you aren’t feeling happy at work, it will show on the job. Nowadays, with work from home options, you can claim an area as your workspace, spruce it up with your favorite books, family pictures, table plants, or merchandise of their favorite brands. Calming colors such as shades of blue or green can spread optimistic vibes. You can also keep their desks clutter-free as it alleviates stress.

Negative attitudes can have a long-lasting and adverse impact on your workflow and office productivity. On the other hand, focusing on positive stories and wins, focusing on group values go a long way in bringing out the best version of you; Version 2.0.

For more inspiration, ideas, tools and tips, continue reading more at my blog!

Stress and Chaotic Work Life

At some point in time, you would all have felt the pressure of an upcoming office deadline after an already chaotic day. Teamwork is challenged further with work-from-home and the resultant break in effective communication with your colleagues. The blurred and stretchable work time does not make it any easy. A little pressure is normal, but if it persists, it can wreak havoc psychologically and physiologically. I say this because one takes stress for granted, becoming a good habit. The result, however, affects your physical health and mental wellness. Your body does give signals which you often tend to ignore, again because of habit.

Owing to the excessive pressure and demands you bring on yourself, stress and mental fatigue have become a growing concern in organizations today. How do you define extreme pressure? How do you handle stress? Have you noticed your body crying for help sometimes? Can you relate it to stress?

Stress is Not Always Negative

Stress can also bring out the best in you. It helps you be alert and achieve in life. However, in most cases, when you think you cannot control stress at work and home, it eventually leads to lifestyle diseases. Some lifestyle diseases are elevated blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, sleep disorder, and maybe niggling problems like prolonged headaches for no apparent reason. It can even impair cognitive ability, affecting your overall efficiency.

Anyone who’s worked themselves to the point of burnout will relate to these symptoms, as I did at one point. I was getting headaches lasting for two to three days, my blood pressure was high, and my digestive system went for a full toss. But I was in denial. How can this happen to me, being a super achiever, organized, calm, and focused at work? Do you see the irony? I couldn’t connect nor listen to my body.

Lifestyle Diseases

When you live 24/7 in stress, it starts eating into your physical health and body and affects your mental health. Let me introduce you to some lifestyle diseases. It starts right from unhealthy eating habits. Maybe sugar or caffeine abuse. You can see a possible weight gain. You may suffer from PCOD and other period-related issues. Early signs of diabetes, uncontrolled blood pressure, heart issues, migraine, common cold, aches and pains, fatigue, sleep disorder, lack of enthusiasm, digestive problems, food intolerances, thyroid issues, and autoimmune diseases like Arthritis and Cancer, to state a few. The good news is they are reversible, subject to how you handle stress. I have the following website to further validate the claim and for your reading pleasure.

https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2014/stress-and-disease.html

Women Work Twice as Hard

It may be debatable, but I believe women have to work twice as hard as men in several aspects of life, ranging from personal to professional, to sustain themselves in a world full of competition and stress. Women wear multiple hats and have to acquire the skill to juggle them successfully. You want to be seen as strong and confident but often undervalue yourself, costing your self-esteem. It can lead to resentment and a sense of helplessness.

Step Back, and Magic Happens

Once you learn to step back, pause and introspect, magic happens. Women adopt certain behaviours due to conditioning over generations. When you were young, your mothers unconsciously led you to believe that you must maintain a demure image and not argue, fight or talk too loud. Some types of jobs were not considered a good fit. You grow up accepting many ‘inequalities’ or have to work hard and fight against such ‘norms.’

Using Your Unique Strength

Although men have different qualities than women, both important and useful, you bring your unique attributes to work, to this world, society, and your family. Learn to focus on and use your strengths and accept what is not yours.

You can be fantastic nurturers, being emotionally stronger. You are likely to have better focus and attention to detail, an excellent manager skill to possess. It helps to be aware, accept, and focus on your uniqueness and derive your strength rather than complain or live in resentment.

How to Live the Change

Now that you recognize the problems and pitfalls, you want to change. But the how part is challenging. Often, all it takes is physically taking a step back, inhaling a deep breath, and exhaling it out slowly. Sounds easy, yet it is potent. These few seconds are enough to allow your brain to move from its default 24/7 ‘stress’ mode to open a ‘creative’ window. All the solutions are within you, right there in the creative side of your brain. This method of stepping back and observing yourself is a practical first step.

What Other Tools Help Access Your Creative Side?

You will need to slow down at times. Slow down the pace of your talk, the speed of your walk. Slow down and give yourself some ‘Me Time and Me Space’ once in a while. Acknowledge your effort now and then. If you don’t pace yourself, take a pause, validate yourselves, how can you add value to others, be it in your personal or professional life?

Friends add significant value to your life. Share your feelings not only with your spouse, share with your friends as well.  You can even bitch a little and laugh our heads off.  Like I always say, learn to let go, to forgive. Forgiveness is only complete when you forgive and forget. It allows the enormous burden off our shoulders.

Looking for Positive Aspects

Looking for and focusing on even the slightest positive aspect in your spouse, your children and appreciating them is also a great team-building tool, a step forward to building that solid trust. All these steps help in your confidence building, define your boundary better, and make it easier to say ‘No’ when needed. It boosts your self-esteem, your image, and self-worth. Since stress is not going to disappear, it helps you handle stress with ease.

The more you exercise these mindfulness practices, the more you will access your creative brain and find that perfect balance. It helps you choose, from resentment and stress to happiness and excitement, seeking opportunities in challenges.  As a result, you blossom into a strong, confident woman with abundant energy, sharing that happiness while nurturing others while you find success in whatever you seek. Coming back to lifestyle diseases, it is at this point reversal starts to happen, towards a healthy body and healthy mind.

I recommend the simple stress-buster activities in my 5 Daily Exercises for Women guide available on the resources page on my website. Visit the link to download it for free now!

Struggling with Team-Building?

Are you part of a team or lead a team at your workplace, and are you struggling with the delicate dynamics it entails? Are you amongst those who allocate work to your team but end up doing their work as well, just so that you stand perfect? Then this blog is just for you. Being an Ontological coach and having worked with people from Dubai and India, especially women in business, I have listed the top 6 skills you need for workplace wellbeing, helping ace your professional life.

Since your workplace is where you spend the maximum amount of your time, it’s crucial that you feel comfortable, secure, and happy. Though wellbeing is a subjective term, it usually emerges from your thoughts, attitude, and actions on which you have control. Whether it is handling the work-life balance or finding your purpose, the skills you practice create a healthy work environment and help you be more confident and thriving at work. You can quickly adapt your learning to apply it to your home front.

Naming the Skills:

Your ability to climb the rungs of the career ladder and stay there hinges on more than just your qualifications. Soft skills are the added talent that managers look for in candidates before hiring them. Although difficult to measure or define, they dictate your attitude and conduct to shape your workplace wellbeing. These soft skills can also be classified as a personality trait or habit. Adaptability, creativity, enrolling your team, taking ownership, and conflict resolution are excellent team-building skills.  Effective communication and a growth mindset are the more specific high-impact ones.

1. Effective Communication

The ability to communicate involves knowing how to speak with others in different situations or settings. For instance, when working with a team on a project, you may find an idea or process ineffective and may need to communicate with your team. Finding a way to disagree with others on the job without creating conflict tactfully is an essential skill of value. Enrolling the team-members from the beginning helps rather than instructing the process to be followed where they are unaware of the end goal. You will be surprised with unique ideas team members you least expect to bring out.

2. Adaptability to Change

Another team-building tool is that of adaptability. How easily do you adapt to changes? Changes in processes, environment, or from the client’s side can happen quickly. A good leader is capable of adapting to new situations and finding new ways of working. It goes a long way in creating an energetic workplace environment rather than a low team spirit that one often encounters. When you are curious and open to new ideas, you can adapt quickly. Try applying the same skill at home and see magic unfurl. Of course, it is equally important to know how much you can extend yourself and when to say ‘No’ in a powerfully creative way.

3. Learning with a Growth Mindset

Just as an equanimous mindset helps us function smoothly globally, a curious learning approach helps build a growth mindset. It enables you to perceive work tensions as challenges to help overcome obstacles. The idea of learning from failures allows you to focus on finding solutions to problems rather than getting demotivated by them. The will to grow instills a positive attitude. It helps in setting team goals and audit the process once in a while.

Active learning at the workplace is vital to promote the overall personal growth and that of the team. You are learning and developing these skills that will enable you to navigate your ship through tricky waters and is imperative to achieve growth.

4. Creating a Supportive Environment

It is vital to create a supportive and encouraging work environment to thrive at your workplace. Taking ownership of your team’s performance is imperative. A healthy environment is created by focusing on some core values. Workplace safety, small acts of gratitude, recognition of effort for both for you and your team, exercising flexibility in project commitment are ways of encouraging a happy workplace. Workplace safety is not just the responsibility of the management; it is yours as well. Sexual harassments are not to be taken lightly and need to be voiced at any cost. A positive environment encourages commitment to excellence, open and honest communication, respect, compassion, and empowerment. It also increases self-motivation, innovation, and creative thinking, which enable the organization to expand the business, optimize quality and increase profitability.

5. Creative and Critical Thinking

As a team member, do what you’re told at work is not always the right approach. It is a must to reconfirm shared understandings of instructions and processes. Evaluate the information available. As much as a logical quotient is essential, allow your critical thinking ability and letting your creative juices flow is important. Speaking your mind out in an excellent way can improve processes, innovate in your field, and spot pain points.

Use critical thinking along with problem-solving. When you are asked to, or you see a particular problem, don’t immediately start looking for solutions. Take a step back and analyze the situation by researching and reviewing the information available. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The radical out-of-the-box thinking helps create a win-win situation for you, your team, and your company. 

It reminds me of when I used to get so excited and involved in problem-solving and felt if I didn’t step in, both at work and home, the problems can’t get resolved. Little did I realize that I was indirectly passing on the message of distrust to others around me. The best way is to involve the team and ask them to come up with solutions. You are creating the energy of equality and respecting every member’s capability of solution-finding.

6. Celebrate and Share Your Successes

A common reason people leave their jobs is that they do not feel appreciated. We also have a miserly attitude when it comes to respecting our efforts. Whether it’s your first day at work or you’ve been around for a while, you’re not expected to be perfect. Instead, look at yourself as ‘work-in-progress.’ Learn to appreciate your small wins.

If you achieve a small milestone, learn to celebrate it. A “pat” of appreciation from yourself will push you to do better and motivate you. The same applies to your team. Since a simple reward is fulfilling, rewarding, and uplifting, celebrating and sharing the success with teammates will only improve performance and encourage further growth. I am talking about small treats like a coffee break or just loud cheers. The brain recognizes and craves such appreciations.

Workplace need not be all work and no play. Quite the opposite offers a great workplace environment of growth and wellbeing, where teamwork is a consequence. According to TLNT, 80 percent of workers agree that having the opportunity to learn new skills at work makes them more interested and engaged in their job.* Supporting and uplifting others can spurt your personal growth.

*Ref: https://www.tlnt.com/how-to-make-learning-a-top-priority/

In Conclusion

Soft skills are incredibly essential to organisations across industries. In today’s constantly changing world, organizations need people who can adapt to new situations, apply their thinking and skills to evolve and develop new skills when the environment around them is constantly changing. If you are looking to establish workplace well-being, it is important to develop and practice good soft skills that will influence the way you work, your interpersonal relationships, and your overall success. No matter where you are at in your professionally or personally, you need soft skills to complete your everyday tasks effectively.