Through my professional and personal life, I’ve come across many extraordinary, driven individuals who want to make a positive impact in the world.
When I worked in government, the majority of the people I worked with were driven by the idea of serving the public. Working in the civil service attracted them as they saw it as a way to make tangible change whilst pursuing their personal interests.
Now I work around people driven to tackle sustainability and climate issues. I’ve come across a wider set of organisations – NGOs, think tanks and sustainability professionals in business. It’s a real pleasure to see people genuinely striving to tackle the biggest challenges we face today.
Unfortunately, what I also see is a lot of stress, anxiety and overwhelm. There is an increase in the amount of burnout which is negatively affecting people’s personal sense of wellbeing. This is sad in of itself – everyone deserves to live a happy, fulfilling life.
But also, when we are stressed or burnt out, we are also becoming far less effective in making the change we want to see in the world. This means the positive change is severely limited.
Many who are driven to make a change can be very focussed on the external. Whilst it is good to be conscientious about the wider world, it also means many in this space neglect taking care of themselves.
Worse still, the ongoing connection with work and media leads to the constant flow of negative news. I learnt a new word this week – ‘polycrisis’, which is meant to encapsulate all the crises happening right now.
I don’t judge people getting stressed over these things – after all, I was one of them. I used to come home from work after working on Brexit without the ability to disconnect. Unsurprisingly this was the period I was unhappy – I gained weight, was regularly stressed and had poor sleep.
But the great news is that we can change our outlook. One of the big revelations for me was recognising that the barrier to my own performance was the way I treated myself. Once I realised that feeling constantly on edge was making me far less effective, it meant I could no longer conveniently ignore my ‘personal life’ in favour of focussing the ‘work life’.
One of the reasons I love the coaching space is because I can see the tangible impact it can make on people’s lives, which subsequently helps them perform better in all facets of their life. A lot of the work I do with clients is shifting this view of negativity by highlighting the fact that this view this is actually a choice, rather than a determined fact.
You may be thinking ‘how can this view be a choice – isn’t it a fact there are wars going on, a massive climate crisis etc.?’
Yes, bad things are happening in the world. I am not looking to deny reality. But what is also happening is amazing, great things – advancements of technology, increasing freedoms, better healthcare, tangible progress to societal and climate challenges. We see whatever we choose to look at. If we want to find bad things happening, we will find many. But if we want to see good things, we can also find plenty too.
One of the biggest differences I could see in successful leaders people wanted to be around compared to those who seemed stuck in a rut was their demeanour. In government, I saw some leaders under intense pressure handling things with a smile and calming manner. I saw other managers seemingly on a constant treadmill of stress and tiredness. The positive people tended to do very well, the less positive people did less so.
The big difference was mindset. We can choose to see things positively, and we will feel happier and do better in our jobs. Or we can let ourselves fall into negativity and find ourselves less happy and less effective. When it’s set out like this, the answer is a no-brainer. Unfortunately many people do not realise this is a choice.
So how do we choose to see things positively? Well firstly, we prioritise ourselves and our own wellbeing. When we are fit and healthy, we are in a position to tackle any challenge. This means taking holiday, sick leave and breaks. It also means connecting with friends and prioritising hobbies. People who have hobbies tend to do better in their jobs because their sense of self-worth is not solely based upon their day at the office.
We are the summation of the people and things we surround ourselves with. If we are spending a lot of time with negative people, it makes it trickier to feel positive. Be ruthless with your life, you only have one of them. Help where you can, but cut people out if you need to. There’s nearly 8 billion people in the world, if you don’t have the friends you want, there’s plenty out there. But remember, this is far easier when you have done the work on yourself – if you bring positive energy through your being then you will attract positive energy to you.
Likewise, if you are constantly consuming negative media, you will probably feel worse. If you are getting alerts to your phone about how terrible things are happening across the world, learn to take control of your media consumption. The media cycle works by selling fear. We do not need to know every single latest piece of news as soon as it happens. When you look at it honestly, once a day usually suffices fine.
The world needs you as the talented, driven person you are. But it also needs you to be happy and healthy to be able to share your gifts with the world.
P.S. if you would like to understand how you can make these shifts better, drop me a message. I’m happy to have a conversation with you to help.