Stress seems to be an inevitable part of work. There are some days where your stress levels are pretty low, but then you’ll have times where you feel as though the stress will never end. The pressure you feel at work may be preventing you from progressing in your career in these three ways.
You’re too stressed to promote yourself properly for a raise or promotion
If you’re too stressed in your day-to-day at work, the thought of adequately preparing yourself for your annual performance review or making strong connections across the company may seem impossible. Your job now shouldn’t stand in the way of your job in the future. Every day, set aside a few minutes to work on your career goals. Block the time out on your calendar, so you’re not as likely to put it off. Use this time to focus on several practices that will help further your professional goals, like developing relationships with senior executives in your company outside of your boss. You can also use this time to prepare yourself for a raise or promotion request.
Your job isn’t a fit for you, but you’re too stressed to find an alternative
You may know that your current career isn’t the perfect one for you. Maybe you find the work to be tedious or the culture isn’t a good fit. Either way, feeling unhappy in the workplace can cause a lot of stress to build up. This stress can continue to build and build until you’re so miserable that you quit, without having a backup job first. However, trying to think of the alternative and apply for new jobs is a stressor in and of itself. To get yourself in a better mindset to think of next steps, write down a list of some of the things you love to do outside of work. Spend the next month trying to do as many of these things as possible (without causing a financial strain). These acts of self-care will help to reduce the amount of stress you feel and put you in a better place to think about your future and the necessary steps you need to take.
Your job search isn’t going well, but you’re too stressed to fix it
Finding a job is a hard and stressful process on its own, let alone when you’re already stressed out because of your current job situation. Maybe your network isn’t being responsive to your outreach. Maybe you had a great interview, and then never heard anything back. All of this stress may make you think the whole process is not worth it and leave you stuck in a dead-end job. Build in support and troubleshooting efforts into your job search. Designate your most positive friend to keep you motivated toward your end goal. Track all of the jobs you’ve applied to and how far you got in the process so you can review the data and try to figure out where things are going wrong.
This article was originally published on JimmyLustig.com.