Career stress? Here’s what you can do

Career stress is a common experience for many people and it can have a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being however, there are things that we can do to manage and reduce this stress. The easiest and surest way to overcome career stress is by forever committing to evolving your personal excellence.

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Pragati Goyal, Lead Clinical Psychologist at Lissun, shared, “The fear of making the wrong choice, fear of not being successful, fear of being judged by society, fear of making mistakes in your career path, and many such fears hold us back from taking up risks, being vulnerable and realising our potential. Career anxiety is the face of one of these fears we try to control. Fear asks us to seek control over our life path, which is like chasing a shadow. The more you try to control your fear, the more anxiety it causes.”

She added, “People with career anxiety end up equating their identity, and self-worth only with one aspect of life, which is their career success and end up overlooking other equally important aspects of their life. To lead a career without anxiety means to accept the uncertainty of the journey and realise that you cannot control everything which happens in your life. It’s essential to remember that it is okay to make a mistake, or not figure out things in the first go, it just tells us that we are human beings, not superhumans. It is equally important to carry a balanced approach to life and pay attention to the unseen areas of life.”

Dr Preet Pal Thakur, Co-Founder of Glamyo Health, suggested, “One key approach is to focus on building resilience, which involves cultivating a positive mindset, strengthening our social support networks, and adopting healthy habits like exercise and mindfulness practices. It’s also important to take proactive steps to address the sources of stress in our work lives, such as setting realistic goals, delegating tasks, and seeking feedback and support from colleagues and mentors. By prioritizing our own well-being and taking control of our work lives, we can not only reduce the negative effects of career stress but also thrive in our careers and achieve our goals.”

Adding to the list of tips, Harini Ramachandran, Co-Creator of Excellence Installations Technology and Co-Founder of Antano and Harini Legacy Accelerators, highlighted, “Fundamentally, there are two different contributing factors to career stress. One is just a lower threshold to stress, where an individual might get stressed easily, say before an important meeting, presentation, negotiation, etc. If being stressed at work is almost a “default” setting, that’s an easy fix. The second however, is the kind of stress that stems from deep and intuitive space where an individual is aware of the changing dynamics and fears that they may get stalled in their career, lose their edge or no longer remain as extraordinary.”

He recommended, “To resolve this, an individual needs to be equipped with superior capabilities like predictive intelligence and more. To help these individuals, look at what makes them unique, the sparks of brilliance that they already possess and help them acquire certain missing arcs to complete their unique rarity. As a direct consequence, they become truly irreplaceable in their career, pivoting to the big league and growing blissfully in all aspects of their life: career, health, family and legacy (long-term impact).”