If you dread going to work today – try this

If you dread going to work today, maybe you are feeling anxious about work?

A lot of the advice life coaches offer telling you to follow your dreams, do the work you love and get paid loads for doing it won’t really help much. Work to live, not live to work they say. This is an exciting prospect but needs preperation.

There are also lots of coaches telling us we can live a laptop lifestyle anywhere in the world. In Bali you can write your business plan. In Thailand you can write an online course while perched on an Elephant. You can top up your tan in Australia while you run a webinar on the beach! You can earn your fortune while you sip cocktails in Fiji. Amazing stuff. And yes, people are really doing it.

But what about the millions of people that aren’t brave enough to do that and are feeling anxiety about work every single day? Maybe they can’t see a path to that life or career at the moment? Or have caring responsibilities or commitments that makes them feel they can’t? What can they do in the here and now?

Do you have a ‘normal’ job?

Well, if you are one of the millions of people in a ‘normal’ job. Maybe in the NHS, an office or retail, you might not be looking forward to work each day because you won’t be working from the beach will you? You might be responding to lots of emails, serving lots of customers or wading through papers or spreadsheets. And that can make you feel anxious about work.

It is a very useful life skill to make the best of any situation by using the power of your mind. If you have ever been stuck in a queue at Disney for a ride you will have had to do this.You need to make up games or stories to entertain yourself during that 3 hour wait! I’ve yet to meet an adult who enjoys queuing.

Now this isn’t to say you shouldn’t follow your dreams. Dreams are exciting and things that pull us towards better things but most dreams need action. You still need to buy a lottery ticket to be a lottery winner (it surprises me how many people say they wish they could win the lottery but don’t buy a ticket!).

Make a list of things you can do:

All too often, we focus on the things we don’t like. To help you feel less anxious about work, have you considered writing a list of ‘things I can do to like my job more’? Make a list of things you could do to make every day more interesting and enjoy your job more.

This might feel difficult!  Let me help you with an example: for an office worker:

I will:

• include some walking in my day. Either in my commute or lunch hour. I will enjoy seeing new things and moving my body
• embrace any opportunity to learn and grow
• enjoy laughing with people at work
• take on challenges that stretch me
• teach others things
• introduce variation to boring tasks
• jazz my desk up with a plant or photos
• generate and share ideas
• do a voluntary role to expand my interests, skills and network

You see some people would say that you only get out what you put in. so if you have a mindset of ‘I hate my job’ or ‘My job makes me feel anxious’, then every cell in your body hears that and feels that. By changing your mindset you could change how yo feel about your job.

If you hate your job and it is making you feel anxious I can help you change those anxious thoughts and feelings with a few sessions.

Or you know it’s not a job you don’t want to stay in but are confused about what it is that you want to do. Or you lack the confidence to do something new or are fearful, then please do get in touch as I can help you find the clarity, confidence and courage that you seek.

I can also help with any depression or anxiety that you feel that might be making things at work more difficult than they need to be.