Do You Need a Career Cleanse?

You’ve heard all about a detox where you abstain from bad habits and unhealthy substances to rid your body of toxins so it can emerge almost as new and you feel completely energized for growth and even more action.

Now, what if we apply that same concept to your career?

It works the same way! Just like how a detoxification rids our bodies of the bad stuff, a career detox eliminates the same “bad stuff” that prevents us from realizing our potential. And when you have the extra energy (minus all that negativity that’s been raining down on your career progression), you can now move forward and work on what’s best for your progression.

But first things first – how do you know you need a career detox aka career cleanse? Here are a few sure signs:

• You feel completely drained. Too much toxin in the body makes you lethargic. Similarly, too much workplace toxins can build up and cause you misery, making you feel like energy is sucked out of you every single day.
• You zone out at work. When your body isn’t performing at its optimal, you find yourself losing focus and the determination to do better. Same with your career. If you find yourself not engaging during discussions or zoning out, wishing you were somewhere else instead, a career detox is what’s needed to put you out of that rut.
• You aren’t as sharp as you used to be. Imagine a body that’s been fed with unhealthy food, lacks sleep, and runs on empty most days. Now, imaging your job making you feel blah, unmotivated, and doesn’t give you the purpose you seek.
• You feel stressed, the minute you arrive at work! Toxins slow the body down, causing you to feel anxious and filled with trepidation that you aren’t as fast or alert as you used to be. You also fall sick more often. The same goes when your career calls for a detox. Every minute spent at work feels like a year has been taken off your life. The stress of being at work overwhelms you, and yes, it can also cause you to fall sick more often!

If any of the above sounds familiar, then where do you start for a career detox? Like a healthy body, the key to an effective career detox is persistence, consistency, and most importantly, what you need to feel recharged.

First step: Make a list of everything that you think is toxic to your career – no matter how big or small! For example, a long commute, a difficult manager, your messy workplace, a project you’re currently working on that is boring.

From there, look at your list and think how much of it you can control. This is a difficult but much-needed step as it can give you an overview of the things that are blocking your career progression. Say you really don’t like the project you’re currently assigned to. Because of that, you don’t give your 100% and you feel stuck in a rut. How much can you do to change that? Or maybe there are a few colleagues who suck your energy through their office politics and drama. This is a very real workplace toxic that can make working quite unbearable. What can you do about it?

Now that you’ve established your workplace toxins and how much you can control it, it’s time for action with our REAL tip! For each item on your list, assign it with one of the REAL techniques: Remove, Evaluate, Adapt, Leave Alone.

Here’s how it works: Say your workplace toxin is a colleague who’s been plying you with office gossip and drama, clearing, sucking up your effort and time listening to her. There are four ways you can “detox” her out of your work life:
Remove: Perhaps start working on creating a distance between you and her so she won’t feel like she can come to you anytime to talk about her latest relationship drama
Evaluate: Evaluate your relationship with her. Have you been giving her the wrong signals that you’re totally cool with being her soundboard? Or maybe evaluate your reaction to her revelation or how you feel about being the person she runs to with every piece of office gossip? Your reaction can help you deal with the stress dealing with this toxic colleague.
Adapt: OK so you can’t stop your colleague from gossiping or oversharing but what is under your control is what you do when she comes to you. If listening to her gossip all the time is too much, adapt – look busy when you see her approaching or stop her and say you need to hand in something important and perhaps could you catch up when you have more time?
Leave Alone: Acknowledging the fact that you can’t change how your colleague loves to share her latest relationship drama with you, you can do this: Ignore. Don’t give her any more attention than necessary. Let her spew but don’t encourage her for more details. Soon enough, she’ll get the idea that you’re not interested and you can then continue to focus on what’s important at work and not seem like you’re engaged in idle chit chat or office politics!

Photo by Dillon Shook on Unsplash.