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Burn-Out.
Did you know that burn-out is classified as an “occupational phenomenon” in the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO)? It’s in a section describing factors that influence a person’s health without being an illness or injury. Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life. It’s a syndrome (associated symptoms of opinions, emotions, and behavior) essentially brought to fruition from the unsuccessful management of chronic workplace stress. It is characterized by three dimensions: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; Reduced professional…
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Happiness.
Philosophers caution against focusing on happiness as the ultimate good in life, and I tend to agree. Happiness is subjective; it’s not a constant. I think we’ve put happiness on this unobtainable pedestal. It’s something that we haven’t actually defined for ourselves as individuals, and we strive for an unrealistic, curated ideal (however it is we perceive that ideal). Basically, we really don’t even know what we are searching for. What we talk about in our culture as happiness is really kind of a revved-up version of happiness. It’s a high-energy [state] — scientists call it a high-arousal positive affect. It’s a feeling, it’s transient, it’s not quality of life, it’s not so…
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Fuego.
You know those people who in very few words can ignite a spark 💥 within you? I met with one of those people recently. A woman that I highly respect and appreciate. She tells it to me like it is, laid out as fact, but with a tone that is sincere and caring, not accusatory and demeaning. The distinction in her delivery is important. Great leaders cater the message for the recipient to feel in a positive way. With all this COVID shit going on, I’ve been feeling a lot of different emotions. I’ve been trying to be patient with these emotions, because I’m not sure if I’m feeling them…
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Avoidance.
We all value the importance of communication, but so many people avoid conversations that make them feel uncomfortable – which doesn’t solve anything. It actually makes everything worse. I’m not going to go into examples here. We all know how it feels when we don’t feel as though we’re being listened to. I tried to have one of these uncomfortable conversations with someone. I told him what I wanted to talk about, and we agreed to have the conversation at a later time when we would both be prepared to do so. But that later discussion never happened. This person invited me to have a seat at the table, then never let me pull up…
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Heart.
Have you ever really paid attention to where you feel emotions in your body? It’s quite an interesting experiment that I recommend you try. I did it for a week, and I learned that nearly every emotion I feel somewhere in the central portion of my body. But it wasn’t all that surprising when I thought about it. When my heart breaks, I feel it in my heart. When I get nervous, I feel it in my stomach. When I feel joy, I feel it in my heart. When I feel excitement, I feel it in my stomach. I don’t feel emotions in my head or my legs. As you learned, our gut is becoming known in the science community…
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Worth.
Normally, when I want something, I go after it to make it happen. The problem is that sometimes you can only go so far until other people play a part in whether or not you can achieve your desired outcome. I can work my ass off to get into a program, but I cannot force the board to choose me. I can put forth the effort in a relationship, but I cannot force the other person to reciprocate. At some point, you have to analyze whether or not the things you want are actually worthy of your desire. Sometimes this means walking away from something that you really want. I recently made the decision…