Making Happy New Year Last: 6 Tips to Avoid burn out

First published on LinkedIn.com as "Raise Your Glasses to a Happy New Year: 6 Tips to Avoid Burn Out".

Dazzling lights, shimmering colors, ringing carols, and it was the season to be merry. The shouts of ‘Happy New Year’ rent the air, strangers cheered as friends, and people scrambled to create resolutions. Then, gradually the excitement waned and the rat race began once again. Like a graph with its highest peak at the beginning, our enthusiasm may be spiraling down through the year leaving us stressed out at the end.

Stress puts a strain on our bodies and leaves us at risk of ill health, poor mental performance, premature aging, and illness. Holidays provide the chance to get off work, catch up on sleep, and get together with loved ones. After which we get back to work refreshed, with higher levels of energy, and productivity, which is good for health, workplace hence our career as well.

The good news is that you don’t have to burn out after the holidays. You can be happy, refreshed and productive through the year.

Here’s are a few tips to make that happen:

Change your routine: You can’t do the same things and expect different results. Identify bad habits and make changes that can make your life easier.You may need to correct bad sleeping habits, eating habits and even work habits. Be honest about the things you've been doing that have been toxic to your life. Create

replacements for such and work towards forming new habits.

Manage your time: Create boundaries for time wasting activities and people. Draw out priorities like ‘big rocks’ such as work, family, and enjoyable activities. Plan these out weekly and follow them as much as you can. Don’t procrastinate.

Create 'me' time: Break your cycle of busyness and take time out to recharge and reset. When you take care of yourself, you can care for other people and things better. It's a pointer that you value yourself, and saves you from feeling exhausted, rushed and spent. Don’t be a martyr; you don’t have to say yes to everyone. You can turn down invitations from people just so you have time for yourself. You'll be better for it.

Don't bind yourself to drastic changes: as enticing as it is, resist the urge to commit to drastic changes, because it is the perfect formula for disappointment. There's the tendency to be zealous when setting goals, but at this stage it's easy to fail before you even start the journey. Rather than setting far-reaching goals, take small bites, experience some success and failures (nothing to beat yourself up about), celebrate you and/or review wrong choices, then take bigger bites and let the cycle of success continue.

Surround yourself with positive people: Having a good support system eases your journey towards goal achievement. Always try to look on the bright side of life, and surround yourself with people who do the same. They will make your life less stressed and more enjoyable.

Volunteer: It might sound cliché, but by giving to others you can make a difference, reduce stress, find friends, become part of a community, learn new skills, and have fun.

Here's to a refreshing year.

Cheers!

#NewYear #Tips #LastYear #2017