May 12 2021

To The One Who Prioritises The Grind Over The Mind

So it's mental health awareness week this week and I thought it would be a good time to talk about how easy it is as a fresh 20 something graduate stepping into the corporate world to prioritise the grind over the mind.

But, the fact that something is easy doesn't mean it's good.

We live in a work culture that typically attributes excessive working hours and stress to success, making newcomers to the game often feel like they have no other choice but to put their mental wellness on the backburner.

Now this doesn't mean every workplace or every supervisor perpetuates this culture, but it's difficult to fight against what society promotes as success sometimes.

So how can you flip the switch and begin to prioritise your mind?

Well let's start with a definition of mental wellness:

"A state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community" - WHO

So by my understanding, there are 4 key elements to mental wellness, but I'm going to look at 2 that have been on my mind lately and (hopefully) provide some helpful tips to keep mental wellness at the forefront of your mind in the workplace.

I say (hopefully) because I have a bad habit of giving great advice that I don't always take myself - but I know a lot of us fall in this category so I'll try to provide a tip that'll help us change that.

Working productively and fruitfully

Prioritising the grind:

Everyone's stresses are different. But for me, one of my general "life" stresses is food. When I work from home, it's unbelievable how easy it is to get to 7pm on any given day and realise that I haven't eaten anything since my salmon bagel and tea at 8:30am that morning. Working hungry if you're anything like me slowly makes you hangry, and a hangry person doesn't always produce the best work so productivity levels drop. If like me you forgo the basic life necessities to grind, what can you do to flip the switch?

Prioritising the mind:

All workplaces will have some email system that they use like Outlook. So, consider blocking time out in your calendar for the important life tasks like eating or even taking a mid morning and mid afternoon break. You don't have to do anything fancy in that time, but do at the very least make sure you get up and stretch as that alone can increase your productivity.

Contributing to your community

Prioritising the grind:

Now more than ever we are reminded of injustice in the world on a daily basis. Whether it's disregard for black lives, discrimination and racial bullying towards Asians, or so called "ethnic cleansing" of a group of innocent people, the world just doesn't feel like it's in a tip top place right now. Even if you go closer to home, you may be in a country where what would appear to be a basic right, like enough food for children, is called into question. All of these things impact the way you are at work whether it's because your workplace just acts like it doesn't exist, or your workplace calls you to be the spokesperson on the matter. It just sucks to be honest with you.

Now depending on how you're wired you can often feel like it's your responsibility to carry every issue you come across on your back as your contribution to the community. On top of this load you're carrying, there's also an expectation that you don't falter at work. And as noble as the idea sounds, that's just not the best thing to do for your mental wellness. So how can you flip the switch?

Prioritising the mind:

Understand that you can and you will make an impact where you can, but you are not responsible for the actions of the entire world.

For me personally it's very easy to feel like I'm not doing enough to contribute to my community, especially when I see injustice relating to black people. But dwelling on this can generally lead to 2 things:

You inevitably not taking any action to contribute positively because you feel overwhelmed by the feeling of not doing enough
You doing too much in a short space of time to the detriment of your mental wellness, then burning out as a result

Neither option is very pretty, so try to put community needs in context mentally so that you're in a better position to contribute effectively.

Finally, if you're someone who prioritises the grind over the mind - remember, your mind matters.

If you're interested in hearing more about the other 2 elements of mental wellness, I'll probably put something out on my Instagram page: @Successwstephuk

To The One Who Prioritises The Grind Over The Mind

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