Why Embark on a Journey of Personal Growth

Embarking on a journey of personal growth allows you to feel better about yourself, both at work and in your personal life. But how does such a journey unfold? Let’s explore it together.

As human beings, we are emotional creatures, and it’s crucial to recognize our emotions to avoid suppressing them and to use them effectively in every situation, including at work.

Emotional outbursts in the workplace can stem directly from professional challenges or from personal stress spilling into work life. This is why emotional management—especially of negative emotions—is often considered a benchmark for professionalism.

The most common negative emotions experienced at work include frustration, worry, anger, dislike, and unhappiness. If left unchecked, these emotions can severely impact our professional lives. The key is to transform these negative emotions into empowering factors, preventing them from affecting our professionalism.

How can this be done? Start by recognizing the emotions for what they are. When you feel a strong emotion, avoid being overwhelmed or suppressing it. Instead, take a deep breath and listen to yourself to understand what you are feeling.

Once you’ve identified your emotions, focus on their “why” and try to uncover their origin. If it’s a familiar emotion, recalling previous experiences and how you handled them can be helpful in managing it better.

After taking time to calm down and reflect, the final step is to manage the situation. Determine how to respond to intense emotions, especially when they arise in the workplace. There are no fixed rules, but asking yourself questions like, “Are there issues that need resolving before moving forward?” or “What have I learned from this situation that I can apply to similar future scenarios?” can help you act rationally and deliberately, making emotionality an asset rather than a problem.

Personal goals encompass areas such as health, self-perception, mental well-being, and future aspirations, including professional ones. Achieving personal goals involves some key steps, starting with the ability to set them.

Setting a goal requires introspection: considering what could be improved in your career is a good starting point for defining your goals. Every goal should be SMARTer: specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic/achievable, timely, ecological (eco- and ego-compatible), and recorded (written). Writing your goals down is essential for clarifying ideas that may already exist in your mind but are unstructured, making them easier to turn into reality.

Once you’ve established your goal, create an action plan to achieve it. Writing down the steps to take is a crucial part of making the plan concrete. For example, if your goal is to leave your job within a year, your steps might include updating your resume, submitting applications, attending networking events, or enrolling in training courses.

To ensure you’re on track, monitor your progress, such as by making a checklist of tasks and marking off those completed. If you find you’re not progressing as planned, you can always adjust your strategy and identify new approaches.

Workplace stress can arise for many reasons, which is why learning to manage it is essential. For instance, you can start by identifying the main sources of stress during your workday and reflecting on how to respond to them effectively.

There are many ways to manage work stress, from practicing relaxation techniques to setting aside time for yourself, prioritizing your loved ones, and engaging in hobbies. Fully disconnecting during vacations, maintaining regular physical activity, ensuring a healthy sleep routine, and seeking support from a therapist are other helpful strategies for managing workplace stress.

Effective time management can lead to a healthy and balanced lifestyle, reducing stress, increasing energy, boosting productivity, and enhancing confidence.

To manage your time effectively, start by analyzing how you currently spend your 24-hour day. Create a visual map of the hours allocated to work, school, household chores, commuting, social media, and leisure activities, then draw conclusions. How much time is needed to complete a task? Calculate how many minutes or hours are dedicated to specific activities.

Planning ahead and setting time limits for activities and priorities can help create space for relationships and personal interests. You can also use specific time management methods, such as:

•The Eisenhower Matrix: Categorize tasks into four groups: important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither important nor urgent.

•The Pomodoro Technique: Divide your work time into specific intervals alternated with short breaks, enhancing focus and reducing mental fatigue.

Breaking down time into manageable chunks also makes projects and goals less daunting, allows you to concentrate on one task at a time, and leads to significant benefits: reduced procrastination and increased productivity.