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Establishing Boundaries At Work
The Key To Protecting Your Peace
In addition to personal boundaries, there is a time and place that boundaries are needed in our professional lives as well. We think that because we get paid a check to survive or provide for ourselves or our families, that we aren’t allowed to have boundaries. This is not true.
We find in so many research studies that burn-out and disengagement is real. Some of which can be caused by many different reasons, however, some issues can be resolved by boundaries. Depending on the nature of your position, stress can be a real thing for you. Being overwhelmed at your workload can happen, and let’s be honest – disliking some co-workers – well, that is another discussion for another day.
There are things that may be out of your control but managing your expectations and establishing a boundary at work in a professional way, can help you out a lot.
Here are four tips on building boundaries:
1) Speak life into your day! One of the first things that you should do when you wake up, is tell yourself “My mental health is important, and my sanity is worth protecting, so I will not allow anything to control that”. Carry a notebook with you throughout your day, and write positive quotes, and affirmations as you transition from one meeting or event to the next. Listening to positive and motivational videos or songs, believe it or not, can carry you throughout your day. Make that a priority, when your peace is at risk.
2) Don’t bring work home. All work issues and work stress must stay there. You can only control your reactions, and your work ethic, and you can only try again tomorrow. The eight hours or more that you spent at work is time that you can’t get back or go back to. Do better tomorrow.
3) Activate the thinker in you. Don’t allow your emotions to control you. You must learn to discipline your emotions, so that they don’t contain you. When you have an “upset” from a bad meeting, or something didn’t go your way, don’t sulk into making that an entire day event. Ask yourself, are you having a bad day, or did you have a 30-minute experience that you are allowing to consume your day?
4) Confrontation isn’t always a bad thing. If there are things that unnerve you at work, you should make a conscious decision to tactfully address things that are unacceptable. Speaking up for yourself allows you to create a boundary, which helps teach people how to treat you. Take a moment to process how you feel, write it out, and then think about how you can alleviate the issue and timing is everything.
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