7 Tips to Help You Love Your Job and Feel More Positive About Work
May 11 2021
7 Tips to Help You Love Your Job and Feel More Positive About Work
When you are a professional caregiver, you can have good days and bad days. The work can be very draining both physically and emotionally, making it hard to stay positive. It is human nature that it is often easier to focus on all the negative things about your work and life; unfortunately, this can lead to burnout. However, changing your mindset can help you to see your job in a new light.
Having a positive mindset about your job can help you to see obstacles as opportunities, rather than something to dread. Not only can it help you better problem solve, which makes the quality of care you give to your patients better, but a positive mindset can also keep you healthier! A Harvard Medical School study found that having a positive mindset reduces stress, makes you happier and even helps keep your heart healthy!
Beyond helping you avoid burnout and staying healthier, having a positive attitude as a professional caregiver is essential to patient care! Your patients are affected by everything you do, including your attitude and demeanor. This makes it vitally important that you have a positive mindset about what you do each day at work. When you are more positive, your patients will feel that positivity radiating off of you and feel more positive themselves. This can also help increase patient satisfaction because they feel like they are receiving the best and most compassionate care possible.
Having a positive mindset is a choice. We know that it can be hard to be positive about work when you feel like nothing is going your way or when you are just plain exhausted. So, we’ve gathered our best tips to help you cultivate a more positive attitude about your job.
Plan Ahead and Take Breaks
1 Planning the day or even the week ahead can help you stay on track and reduce your stress. Schedule your visits so that you aren’t constantly driving across town to get from one patient to the next. Don’t forget to also budget extra time for patients who you know may need it and to budget in time for taking breaks. Take time each day to nourish your mind and body by eating a snack or a meal. Try a few minutes of de-stressing when you need it by practicing a breathing exercise or doing something fun on your phone. Those few minutes can help leave you feeling more refreshed and ready for what is next!
Change Your Mindset: Don’t think of planning ahead or taking breaks as a chore or a waste of time, but rather a way to help you be more efficient.
Keep Complaints to a Minimum
2 Having negative feelings about certain parts of your job is okay and venting here and there is normal and healthy. However, if you find yourself complaining a lot, it’s time to ask yourself if those feelings are warranted or if you just love to complain. If it’s the latter, it’s time to stop. This kind of negativity not only brings you down, but those around you as well, keeping you and your team from doing your best work for your patients.
Change Your Mindset: Instead of thinking of hurdles as unfair, view them as a challenge and a way to perform better.
Smile!
3 Did you know that the simple act of smiling can affect your attitude? A study by the University of Kansas found that smiling reduces stress and lowers your heart rate even during tense situations. Even if you are faking it, it can still trick your brain into feeling like it is in an ideal situation, even if you really aren’t. Smiling not only has a positive effect on you but those around you as well. It presents a more positive and friendly vibe to your patients and co-workers; smiles are even contagious!
Change Your Mindset: Rather than scowling, fuming or complaining when dealing with a difficult situation, take a moment to take a deep breath and then smile.
Help Your Colleagues
4 Get that warm and fuzzy feeling by doing something nice for a colleague without expecting anything in return. Helping others can leave us feeling more fulfilled and happier, so don’t forget to apply this mindset to your co-workers and not just your patients! Not only that, but offering help to co-workers can help build trust and teamwork plus nurture a positive working environment. When you work to create a positive environment, that will manifest itself positively in your own mindset.
Change Your Mindset: Resolve to help a colleague out once per week or month. By creating that positivity, your colleagues will pay it forward and you never know when you may get some unexpected help one day!
Practice Gratitude
5 Practicing gratitude has been linked to overall happiness and helping people to feel more positive. However, it does take mindful practice. More importantly, this advice is useful for both your work and personal life. It is key to practice gratitude each and every day, even when things get bumpy or chaotic. As you practice gratitude each day, it will get easier to remember the positive things even on the hardest days.
Change Your Mindset: Practice mindful gratitude by going over the positive aspects of your life and job. These positive aspects will be the things that make you feel thankful or happy. Each day, think of at least 2 or 3 things that you are grateful for while at work. By doing this each day, you will make it a habit and it will be easier to do this on days that are hard. Consider writing down a list of the things that you are grateful for in a journal or notebook. You can refer back to these when you need that extra boost of positivity.
Practice Self Care
6 Self care is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. While exercise takes care of our body, self care takes care of our mind. It helps you to de-stress, boosts your confidence and can give you a more positive outlook overall.
Change Your Mindset: Schedule time each week to practice self care. If you are just starting out, try different techniques to find what works best for you, then stick to that self care technique. By scheduling time for self care, you are more likely to practice it!
Choose a Workplace that Appreciates You!
7 Finally, it is important to choose a workplace that appreciates all the hard work you put into your job. Choose a place that offers a higher salary, paid benefits and has a friendly work environment. All of these things can help increase your job satisfaction, keeping you happier and less stressed about work and life in general. When you are less stressed and happier, you are able to focus on your patients and provide them excellent care!
Ready to love your job again? All American offers competitive benefits, including a higher salary, direct deposit of your paycheck, a signing bonus, a friendly work environment, a convenient location, and Spanish speaking personnel. Visit our careers page to apply for a job today!
