Your Healthcare Career and Mindful Productivity: Hitting the Bullseye
Published: 16 September 2020
Published: 16 September 2020
Updating your resume? Applying for random positions? Poking around aimlessly on LinkedIn? Staring off into the vast career void? Your efforts don’t need to be aimless and you don’t need the stress of taking action just for the sake of it. This is where mindful productivity comes into play, preventing the needless expenditure of energy you could otherwise be using more effectively.
Many people feeling the need for change will begin casting around for things to do without a concrete plan. If they read an article about a particular job site, they’ll scroll through positions hoping for something to catch their eye. If someone says they should go back to school, they’ll begin fretting that if they don’t do something soon and apply to the ‘right’ degree program, their career will certainly come to an untimely end. When this type of worry and panic sets in, random actions more often than not lead to random, dissatisfying results.
On one hand, you could argue that if you throw enough darts at a dartboard, you’ll eventually hit a bullseye. While this may be true, it could also be said that you might get a needlessly sore arm from throwing that many darts.
The same could be said about your career. If you’re desperate to leave your current job, you could randomly apply for as many positions as possible and hope that you find one that suits your needs. However, if you end up landing a position that’s a terrible fit, you could very well end up just as miserable.
If you want to move forward, a plan is always better than the old spaghetti trick (or throwing darts until your arm falls off).
When you feel the need for a change and want to take action, it’s preferable to refrain from randomness and instead rely on mindfulness.
Mindful productivity might look like this:
When you engage in mindful productivity, you take the time to choose actions that have a logical sequence and may come away with more clarity than you had prior. In contrast, mindless activities feel exasperating and meaningless, keeping you unnecessarily busy and distracted from true self-inquiry that could actually make things move forward more readily.
If your friend spends hours poring over job sites for open positions, perhaps that works for them. And if your other friend just applied for two different degree programs because it makes them feel like they’re not just sitting around, good for them.
However, your brand of career productivity might instead mean you engage with a mental health counsellor to explore why you feel so hopeless in your marriage and believe a new job will bring you the happiness you can’t find at home. Or it might mean quitting your full-time position and taking a travel position by the beach in New Zealand to clear your head and gain perspective.
Mindful productivity doesn’t always mean doing something in service to a larger long-term goal. Sometimes it can translate as incremental changes that are easier to accomplish than large-scale seismic change.
Be mindful, slow, selective, thoughtful and measured; this can often serve you more powerfully than taking big, bold actions simply for the sake of action.
Small, mindful and thoughtful actions will more often than not win the race and keep you from needlessly throwing darts in hopes of that elusive bullseye.
Keith Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC, is a holistic career coach for nurses, award-winning nurse blogger, writer, podcaster, speaker, author, and popular career columnist. With two decades of nursing experience, Keith deeply understands the issues faced by 21st-century nurses. Keith’s two podcasts, RNFM Radio and The Nurse Keith Show, offer inspiration and practical support to nurses seeking to create meaningful, satisfying lives and careers. Keith’s message of savvy career management and professional satisfaction reaches tens of thousands of nurses worldwide. Keith can be found on many social media platforms---including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram - as well as at www.nursekeith.com and Digital Doorway. See Educator Profile