Re-Energizing YOU, from our upcoming Ask Linda e-Book

March 31, 2011: The YOU at Work, an Excerpt from Chapter Nine: Re-Energizing YOU, from our upcoming Ask Linda e-Book
Dear Linda,
I used to love my job. I couldn’t wait to go in every day and do something significant toward achieving a dream I never thought could happen. Little by little, my drive as ebbed, and my work at life is ho-hum. I like what I do, the people I work with and serve, but I always go home thinking, ‘there’s got to be more’. What am I missing and what can I do about it?
She Who Is a Blah at Work
Dear She, I feel for you, young enough to remember when everything was fresh, experienced enough to appreciate all you’ve done and achieved. Here are some suggestions for re-energizing the YOU you bring to work.
1. Identify WHY you are feeling so blah at work. Are you tired of doing the same old thing? Are you tired of the department or people you work with? Are you seeking a new challenge? Are you seeking more of a purpose in what you do?
2. Develop a strategy based on WHY you are feeling down, and what you would like to do about it.
3. Review the strategy with someone trusted in your network, and commit to making a change to a more energized YOU.
4. If you are seeking more purpose and more impact, consider changing what you do for whom, based on the impact results you seek.
5. If the direction, composition, agenda etc of your team or company has changed, consider finding a climate more conducive to growth for you. Or consider what changes you could forge, along with others, so that you would be more energized when you stay.
6. If you need skills, connections or knowledge to evolve the professional you, make a plan and make it happen. Don’t find yourself a month, a year, or more later coming to the same conclusion, yet taking no action.
7. Sometimes the blah you feel at work is related to crushing demands on time which take you away from other things. Although this is fine in the short term, especially for jobs with a lot of responsibility, it’s just not sustainable. So catch yourself doing this an set boundaries so that it happens less frequently and/or is more manageable.
8. Sometimes it’s the people you work with. If they drain you and don’t bring out the best in you, perhaps it’s time to find a place where you better fit, or to change the place so that you fit better.
9. Sometimes you just need a change of pace, a vacation, time to get away. Make the time to do this and perhaps that’s all is needed.
10. Sometimes when you do an audit of why you’re not feeling yourself, you’ll find that it’s not work that has to change, but things outside work which cause you to be tired of work. So it’s OTHER things that need to change and get back in synch. If you get this ‘aha’ make sure to better appreciate your work, better compartmentalize work and other things, and better appreciate your work life overall.
Whatever you decide to do, knowing and honoring your feelings about yourself and how you feel at work will help you make a change for the better.
Best of luck with your next career shift!
Linda
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BlueFountain’s weekly column features Linda Holroyd’s responses from members of our community, shared with the permission of the requester, and intended to be informative to others with the same question. Use the form at http://bluefountain.biz to submit your questions for future columns, or just e-mail us at AskLinda@bluefountain.biz.

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