4 Self-Care Tips to Keep You Inspired and Effective

Last week was non-stop at work. Next week will be busy, too. And yet here I am, sitting at home on a sunny Sunday afternoon, doing what? Working. Last Friday, I planned to write a blog post for EARN, so I carefully blocked off some time on my Outlook calendar to accomplish the task. Then a deluge of EARN clients, whom we call Savers, came gushing into the office. It would have been a normal influx if my co-workers had been available, but they were out of the office. As I jumped up to help, I pushed aside my thoughtful time-management plan and chose to focus on my priority: serving EARN’s Savers.

Sound familiar?

This is only more ironic when you consider that the blog post I had planned to draft then (and which I am now writing from home) provides advice on how to take care of your well-being. Many helping professionals (nurses, therapists, etc.) experience burnout: we love interacting directly with people and want to share our empathy and warmth – that’s what brought us to these careers in the first place – but, by over-giving and over-empathizing, we risk wearing ourselves out.

If we are to stay dedicated to our missions and be effective at implementing them throughout the course of our lives, it is imperative that we learn to take care of ourselves.

I am just at the beginning of my quest to make a difference in the world, but I have decided to probe the topic of self-care prophylactically because I want to continue to enjoy the rich, stimulating moments I witness when EARN Savers break the cycle of poverty in their families’ lives. I’ve developed some techniques that keep me enlivened by my work. I hope you will find these useful, too. Oh yes, I know… you’re probably thinking, “What does Iliana know about avoiding burnout? She is clearly failing to achieve a work-life balance!” But this simply leads me to tip #1, the most important one of all:

1. Return to the topic of self-care over and over (and over) again.

You’ll think you nailed it. You’ll want to show off to all your friends and co-workers: “Look at me, I’m a little Buddha!” And then, several months later, feeling tired and tense, you’ll wonder how you managed to stray so far from the path to Nirvana. Don’t beat yourself up. Self-care is like a visit to your grandmother’s house: you need to go back every few months, sip some hot chocolate, and enjoy snuggling in your grandmother’s lap. Just because you soaked in her wisdom a year ago doesn’t mean you learned everything there was to learn.So, you’re feeling out of balance again? Perhaps it’s time to cuddle up and learn something more.

2. Build an organization-wide practice of self-care.

Meditation and other stress-management techniques will not suffice if you are consistently working an 80-hour week. An occasional flood of work is to be expected, but if you are always feeling stretched thin, consider identifying systemic changes that would empower you to do your job well while avoiding burnout. Of course, you will need your management’s support to implement such changes. Examples of practices we’ve adopted at EARN include the following:

Investing in technology. Our new database and email management systems have doubled our efficiency in certain areas.
Valuing human capital. We keep in mind how much our time costs our employer (and thus, our funders) — for instance, if something needs to be delivered across town, it is cheaper for EARN to hire a bike messenger than to have me take the trek.
Prioritizing annual goals. We plan our agenda strategically, ensuring that it is focused, effective, and aligned with our mission. This involves making difficult decisions about how to deploy our limited time and resources.
Maintaining a sustainable pace. When people constantly work in a fast-paced environment, they tend to focus so intensely on getting the task done that they often don’t notice better ways of doing it. My team chose to temporarily decrease our intake numbers in 2010 so we could block off time in our schedule for innovative thinking. This allowed us to identify new ways to increase our level of efficiency – by slowing down now, we will actually be able to speed up and accomplish more with our time in the future.
Speaking about self-care. We keep this conversation going in many ways. My favorite is the self-care check-in my team conducts as a group once a quarter, often through a creative exercise that allows us to decompress.
Sharing our Savers’ success. We celebrate the impact we have had in our Savers’ lives – and the impact they’ve had on ours – by telling each other about exciting moments. Did a Saver just buy a home for their family and laud EARN profusely for the motivation we provided? Did another Saver just teach you a savings strategy you’ll want to try out yourself? We make sure to take a moment to enjoy these successes – after all, this is what EARN is all about!

3. Nurture your own well-being diligently.

Even if your company establishes a healthy environment, you will need to champion your own self-care. Diligent, kindhearted people who work in direct service positions are at a high risk for burnout; direct service creates an intangible stress that cannot be ignored. If you want to continue in your profession as effectively and enthusiastically as you began, consider making self-care a top priority. Here are some pointers:

Develop awareness. I used to charge full speed ahead only to crash abruptly into exhaustion. To familiarize myself with my personal warning signs of an impending nosedive, I created a self-care assessment that I took on a weekly basis until it became second-nature. Feel free to create a personalized self-care assessment or find one online.
Release stress/pain. Many people in direct service empathize so strongly with their clients that they end up carrying a portion of their stress or pain. Find ways to release this. Some people say that prayer helps; since I do not adhere to a specific religion, I developed my own ritual.
Set boundaries. This was one of the hardest practices for me to learn, but given that there are only 8 hours in my work day and EARN has over a thousand Savers, I cannot spend an hour with each person who drops in. I learned to set boundaries by using coaching skills adapted from life coaching.
Seek happiness. I’ve found that being surrounded by misfortunes can skew my perception of the world, eclipsing the joy, stability, and wealth also present in my midst. I try to balance my exposure to pain by spending time in nature, enjoying the company of happy friends, and feeling gratitude for all of the blessings in my — and EARN’s Savers’ — lives.
Get re-inspired. Find people, movies, essays, and poetry that inspire you in your work and in your self-care, and then revisit them often. To get you started, here are two of my favorites: “Eleven Ways of Looking at the Long Haul,” David Rosenn’s essay on staying invigorated during many decades in social activism (thanks to my cousin Kathi for sharing this with me!), and “The Journey,” a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver.

4. Finally… follow tried and true advice!

There’s a reason certain tips are always listed in articles on stress-management: they actually work! Some of my favorites are: approach stress with humor, learn to distinguish valid stressors from the small stuff you shouldn’t sweat, meditate, relax, write in a journal, exercise, sleep, eat well, pursue hobbies, and seek social support.

These ideas have helped me (and my team) continue brimming with the enthusiasm we had when we first arrived at EARN. Nevertheless, considering the fact that I was up until 1 a.m. last night finishing my blog post, I’m sure I could use some advice, too. Have ideas? Please share them — I’m sure I’m not the only person who has more to learn!

Until next week,

Iliana Montauk
Financial Services Associate