BONUS: Why Coaching Is the Answer for Public Health Professionals
If you’re currently stressed, overwhelmed, and on the cusp of burnout, you probably feel lost. You’ve tried everything your mentors, professional development panels, or colleagues have told you to do, but nothing has worked. And now, you’re wondering if it’s even possible to continue working in the public health field.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. I was right where you are not too long ago. Overworked, under-earning, I hadn’t taken a vacation in years, and I was in a place where the sight of emails on a weekend would make me cry, so I know what it’s like. But I turned it around for myself less than six months later, and I didn’t have to quit my job.
Tune in this week to discover why coaching is the answer to exhaustion, burnout, stress, and overwhelm for public health professionals. You’ll learn why you don’t have to resort to following the conventional advice of finding a different job, and how coaching will help you feel amazing about your career without having to change a thing.
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What You Will Discover:
How I went from angry and exhausted to happy and in control.
What reduced my stress and helped me achieve goals beyond my imagination.
Why quitting and finding a different job isn’t the solution for exhaustion, burnout, or stress.
The power of choosing how you want to feel.
Resources:
Get The Burnout Recovery Resolution mini-course right now by signing up here!
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey, you all, real quick we’re going to talk a little bit about why coaching is the answer for public health professionals who are stressed and burned out. And if you are here and you have clicked play and you are listening to this then you’re probably burned out, stressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted. And you’ve probably tried everything, mentors and supervisors, professional development panels, colleagues have told you to reduce your stress and get more rest, but nothing has worked.
And now you’re wondering if it’s even possible to continue working in public health throughout your whole career without burning out. Listen, my friend, you are not alone. I was right where you are. Several years ago, I found myself nearly crying at the sight of yet another email sent to me on a weekend. I walked out of meetings with so much anger towards the leadership. I would look at my calendar and to-do list and think I could never get it all done. I was overworked and underearning and I hadn’t taken a proper vacation in years.
But in less than six months from that time I was able to complete all my work in less time without my job having to hire more staff. I no longer checked emails on nights and weekends. The leadership throughout my organization who I still didn’t believe were the best fit for their roles didn’t take up rent free space in my mind all day. I went from pissed off and exhausted to happy and in control. And then two years after that I was having an executive director position created for me with nearly a $10,000 salary increase and a year after that I started my own business.
I’m sharing this because if I had followed the conventional advice given to professionals and helping professions who are dealing with stress and burn out, the advice that just says quit and find a better job. I wouldn’t have achieved any of this. Why is that? Because what reduced my stress and got me to achieve goals beyond my imagination wasn’t a better boss or a better organization.
It was learning how to stop wasting my mental and emotional energy on people or situations outside of me I didn’t have control over. And instead redirect all that energy to create the experience I wanted to have. Beyond the fact that dropping everything to do an exhausting job search isn’t accessible to everyone, it actually won’t solve your problem. Because there will be stressors in every job you will ever have. There is no perfect job. There’s no job that doesn’t have stressors, even when you’re your own boss which I can attest to now.
Even if in your next job you had a great boss and a low workload and great pay, there would be something else. Maybe the commute would suck, or the lack of diversity in the office you wouldn’t really like. Or maybe your great boss would leave and then you get an asshole boss. Or the organization loses some funding and then you’re not sure if they will keep you.
The actual problem is that you don’t have the skills to manage or reduce your stress, or any other negative emotion you are constantly feeling, from overwhelm to exhaustion, or anger, or frustration, maybe resentment. That one was my personal favorite. And your MPH education or professional development kind of programs, panels, experiences you’ve had, have only provided you tactical approaches or soft skills to deal with your stress. For example, strategies for writing a compelling email, or how to negotiate, or how to set a routine, or prioritize sleep.
These approaches and skills 100% have their place, but they don’t help you navigate the emotional toll you face in the workforce from the politics of public health, to the unfair workplace policies, or managers who aren’t good leaders, or high staff turnover, or anything else. In all of those situations and where you are right now, you’re completely missing where all of your power lies and the ability to leverage that to support yourself. You cannot control other people, decisions your department makes, circumstances outside of you.
And you will face barriers and experience you don’t want to from discrimination, to rejection, to colleagues who talk over you and more. But you can determine how you will feel when you face those challenges and barriers. You don’t have to feel hopeless or resentful. You can feel empowered or confident. And it’s not about deciding to be happy all the time or condoning everyone else’s behaviors. It’s about choosing what you want to feel. If you don’t want to feel frustrated, you don’t have to. If instead you want to feel hopeful, you can.
If you want to continue to feel angry, that’s totally your choice. Feelings don’t happen to you, you decide what you want to feel and doing this is a skill. It is something you have to be taught how to do, something you have to practice, just as much as negotiation skills, or creating a compelling resumé. But it is way more powerful because when you learn the skill of not only determining how you want to feel but creating that feeling in the experience, then and only then are you truly empowered.
The only reason you don’t know how to do that now, you can’t do that now is because of all of your underlying disempowering beliefs, from I have too much to do, I can’t take a break, I’m not good enough, I don’t know how. And the spaces all your mental energy goes to right now focusing on believing other people cause your feelings, worrying about what others think, being stuck in indecision, not trusting yourself.
And even further, the underlying limited beliefs you have where your brain tells you rest has to be earned. Productivity will feel good. It’s selfish to put myself first. I have to help other people to be a good person. Not only does all that take up so much brain space, draining your mental and emotional energy, that is what is creating your stress, your overwhelm, your exhaustion, your frustration, your resentment, and anything else. Which leads you to rest less.
That is the problem that needs to be solved, not finding the perfect job. Your brain, your thoughts, they come with you to your next job and the one after that. Those beliefs, those thoughts, the ones that are the cause of your stress, not other people, not your job, not anything outside of you, those come with you. You bring those limiting beliefs and negative self-talk to your next job and end up feeling shitty all over again. So many of your disempowering beliefs have been internalized from direct and indirect messages you have received.
And in fact, we all have, you’re not alone, from families, to school, to media, to religion, to systems of oppression like the patriarchy, white supremacy, other forms of isms, homophobia, ableism, fat phobia, ageism, and more. The work of eliminating your stress, of getting more rest, of feeling better isn’t just about creating the emotional experience you want. It’s also about undoing your own internalization. So, you decide with intention and purpose what you want to believe, what you want to feel and what you want to do in the face of any challenge.
Even that little thought you might be having right now that tells you your work struggles, your work stress isn’t a big enough problem or serious enough to ‘need coaching’ or need help. Is an outcome of the socialization. When you work in a helping profession or if you’ve been socialized as a woman, or if you’re an immigrant, or a child of one, or you are a first gen college student, or if you have any other marginalized identity, you have been socialized to believe you don’t matter as much as others. Or that your problems aren’t as bad, or you should just be grateful.
In fact, even if you’re socialized as a white cisgendered male, you have been socialized to believe it’s weak to ask for help. We all have internalized beliefs that are not serving us and preventing us from feeling better, taking control of our lives, and going after what we want. Coaching is not about me telling you what to do. The truth is, you already know deep down what you want and what you want to do. It’s just buried under all your self-imposed expectations, society imposed expectations, limiting beliefs and disempowering thoughts.
Coaching is where we bring all that to the surface so you can undo it and decide what you want to think and how you want to feel. The results, less stress, more rest, sleeping better, being more confident, achieving your goals and so much more. But the best result of all is you learning how to show up for yourself and full belief for yourself for what is possible without stress, or self-judgment, or blame, or shame, with an abundance of rest and joy in your life.
Limiting your burnout, 100% possible. Creating peace in your life, 100% possible. And it all starts with eliminating the burnout and creating peace in your mind. Your mind, your brain, it’s the most powerful tool you have. And coaching will teach you how to harness it so you can create the experience you want to have. So, if you’re ready to do this, or just curious about it, want to learn more, I encourage you, sign up for a curiosity call with me. It’s a free consult to talk more about what you’re struggling with and how coaching can specifically help you.
Head on over to mckoolcoaching.com/consult, that’s M-C-K-O-O-L coaching.com/consult and I can’t wait to talk to you more. Bye everyone.
If you found this episode helpful then you have to check out my coaching program where I provide you individualized support to create a life centered around rest. Head on over to mckoolcoaching.com, that’s M-C-K-O-O-L coaching.com to learn more.
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