Your career will fulfill a large part of your life, so when you're feeling broken with every other aspect of it, the toll can impact your performance and confidence at work. Whether you're suffering from depression or some other mental health condition, it's important to your personal success to get clear on what's holding you back, address it, and fix it as best you can. Here are some tips on identifying what ails you and getting yourself back on track to a successful career when you're feeling broken.
Identify the Cause of Your Brokenness
What's wrong with me? Why do I feel this way? Why can't I be happy? If these questions have ever been asked by your subconscious mind, you're probably wondering where they come from and what's causing such feelings. That very answer is what you need to find in order to remove the darkness that stands in the way of your career. Depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem are just a few examples of conditions that can make you feel "broken" or like nothing is working out.
More common than you may think, depression affects about 6-7% of American adults and can range in severity from minor depressive episodes to crippling depression and suicidal ideations. This mental health condition can be addressed with therapy, medication, and a myriad of other techniques that lack the seal of approval by the scientific community. Symptoms include constant fatigue, sudden appetite changes or mood swings, pervasive sadness lasting more than a few weeks, among others. For a complete list, visit WebMD.
Anxiety is a condition that causes racing thoughts, increased heart rate, nervousness or restlessness, and more. This condition can compound with other mental health conditions to form a crippling cocktail that can zap your motivation and take away the spunk from life and your career.
Low self-esteem can be caused by many factors, whether it's a condition like depression or anxiety, constant negative feedback, or trauma. This condition can hold you back from living your best life by making you doubt every move you make. This makes it incredibly difficult to focus and do well in your career.
If none of these conditions apply to your situation, it's a good idea to sit down and analyze what's making you feel broken. Is it family members? Failed relationships? Goals you haven't obtained? Once you identify the cause of your brokenness, you can properly address it; and the answer might just surprise you.
Be Sure You're in the Right Career
When we hear "career", we think the real deal, the end game. Your career is supposed to be the final job, the last position you'll hold; one in which you can grow, excel, and be happy. But regardless of the definition of a career, 85% of Americans are still unhappy at work. That's eighty-five percent. Let that sink in for a moment. Think about how much time you spend at work, how much energy goes into your work, and what having a successful career means to you.
Having the right career can mean the difference between a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment and a lifetime of unfulfilled dreams and misery. When you're analyzing what's causing your brokenness, don't leave out your career. Are you happy with it? Is it what you've always wanted to do? What would you like to see changed, and do you have the power to change it?
The short answer is that yes, you absolutely have the power to make any changes you want. You're only ever one big decision away from an entirely different life! Making a change in careers is certainly scary. But when you weigh the negative effects of an unhappy life against the risk of choosing a new, more fulfilling career...the results speak for themselves.
Feeling Broken? Get Help!
Sometimes, you just can't' do everything on your own, and that's ok! There exist mental health resources, support groups, and much more that are available to help you identify what's holding you back and what steps you need to take to fix it. There's no shame in asking for help when you need it, and you deserve to be happy in life. Work fulfills so much of your life's goals, so you should at the very least be happy with your career.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, try talking with a therapist or visiting a support group. Focus resources on improving your current career. Or, if you want to switch jobs, start building the necessary skills to acquire the job that will make you happy. Happiness can't be bought. But when you feel broken, the best thing to do is look for the very thing that will make you happy.
Beach lover. SoCal dweller. Life is never over unless you surrender. Keep going, the prize IS out there.
