It happens to the best of us… Some days we get up for work and immediately nothing seems to be going right; coffee spills down your shirt… you forget your phone and have to turn back around and now you’ll be even more late for work. Maybe your house was struck by lightning and everything burned down, including your laptop, and you still show up for your first day of work.
Now, you may be thinking that is a slightly drastic, worst case scenario situation, but this exact situation happened to a candidate of mine. A few days prior to beginning a new role, her house was struck by lightning, and everything she needed to be prepared for her first day at her new job was gone. She could’ve told her new boss the situation at hand and asked for a start date extension, but instead she showed up on her first day with a smile and was ready to tackle any task at hand.
Bad days are inevitable and so are freak accidents, but how we respond to those days is what matters most. Here are a few tips on how to keep home stress out of the office:
View work as an escape. Embrace the opportunity to fully immerse yourself into your work. If you feel you have too many tasks at hand, focus on a singular task at a time. “If you go to the weight room or the gym and you’re in a bad mood, put that energy into your workout.” – Mark Aoyagi, Sport and Performance Technology Professor. Put that same energy into your work. Physically check off specific tasks to feel a sense of reward upon completion.
Stay Grounded. Your team needs you. Give yourself some time and space to process what is going on outside of work, or maybe even take the opportunity to talk with a colleague, and then be present and grounded when it is time to work alongside your team.
Utilize Resources. When something overbearing is going on outside of the office and you just cannot seem to snap into it at work, use the appropriate resources to take time to focus on the situation at hand. Nonetheless, indulge in a little “me time”, whatever that may be for you personally.
Chase Fryhover serves as a Director at RETS Associates, a national real estate executive search firm. He is based in Dallas and can be reached at [email protected]
The RETS Team brings a deep, strategic understanding of the real estate industry to your recruitment needs. Click here for more insights & tips.
