Use Gratitude To Combat Stress And Burnout
Practicing gratitude is a fantastic way to enjoy our work and lives much more.
In every profession in America today, people are struggling with burnout. Perhaps you are too, whether you lead a large company or organization or you are on salary working for others.
In my work as an orthopedic surgeon, and in all of medicine, burnout is rampant. More than half of American physicians regularly experience symptoms of burnout. Doctors have a burnout rate that in some studies is double that of any other profession. Over the next 5 to 10 years, this country will experience a significant shortage of physicians, as numerous doctors and other healthcare professionals leave the field due to the effects of burnout.
The reasons are numerous, and they apply to fields outside of medicine.
Doctors now work longer hours than ever, including completing medical records for patients they saw during the day at home, late at night. Physicians and other health providers spend hours on the phone with insurance companies trying to get their patients’ tests approved and sit in numerous meetings that have no impact on our ability to treat patients. We are under constant pressure to see more patients in less time, decrease practice overhead costs, and improve patient ratings and satisfaction scores. We come home exhausted, and our husbands and wives are frustrated because we’re frustrated.
Those same struggles exist in almost every job today. Long hours, unending pressure, demands from others we work for, constant stress and frustration lead to many adults dreading going to work most days. Feeling constantly exhausted and irritable. Struggling to sleep well. Spreading negativity in the workplace. Mentally checking out during the day. Dreaming of retiring even though we have to work many more years. Wondering why we ever took this job in the first place.
There is no question that many of the factors that can lead to workplace burnout are largely out of our control. But we need to focus on what we can control. And gratitude is one of the most important tools under our control.
Adding gratitude to our daily lives is a great way to personally combat burnout and enjoy our work and lives much more.
Gratitude can help fight burnout.
Gratitude improves our psychological health, helping us overcome a number of damaging emotions that build up throughout the workday, like resentment, regret, envy and frustration. It increases personal and professional well-being, increases happiness, and helps to prevent depression.
Gratitude improves our physical health and makes us feel better. Grateful people tend to sleep better and have more energy throughout the day. And gratitude can help us reframe negative events and focus on the positive aspects of what we experience in our work.
In the following stories, I explain how some of sports’ greatest athletes incorporate gratitude into their training and performance to endure years of practice and combat numerous setbacks before they achieved ultimate success. We can add gratitude in much the same way to succeed and thrive in our work and lives.
Gratitude can help you enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the outcome.
“The reward is not always on the scoreboard. What is won is not nearly as important as who we become.”
– Augie Garrido, former Cal State Fullerton Titans and Texas Longhorns baseball coach, who won five College World Series titles
Achieving real success in any field is hard. It requires dedication, commitment, and hard work over a long period of time.
It’s easy to become frustrated at how hard it is to reach our goals and how long it takes. But gratitude can help us enjoy the journey.
Valorie Kondos Field guided the UCLA women’s gymnastics team to seven NCAA national championships over her 29-year career. In her second-to-last year of coaching, her Bruins team entered the national championship competition as underdogs. And while her gymnasts performed well, it did not seem likely that her team would win a seventh title. Heading into their last two events, UCLA had less than a three percent chance of winning.
One of the assistant coaches of her team, Chris Waller, realized that none of the teams were having an exceptional meet. He calculated that if all the UCLA gymnasts scored personal records in their last two events, UCLA could still win the competition.
Waller gave his team a motivational speech for the ages, emphasizing that UCLA’s gymnasts were champions and they would fight to the end as champions.
On uneven bars, the UCLA gymnasts hit some of the best routines of their careers. The team averaged the second highest score on uneven bars in NCAA championship history.
They headed to their final event — balance beam — still in fourth place. They would need to average 9.95 to win. Not a single gymnast in the entire competition had hit a 9.95 on beam so far, and UCLA had to average that score.
Miss Val’s athletes were locked in. They competed with confidence, focus, and joy that she had rarely seen in her coaching career. Despite one fall from 2016 Olympic gold medalist Madison Kocian, whose score the team dropped, her gymnasts scored 9.9375, 9.875, 9.95, and 9.9875 heading into the performance of the final gymnast.
Sixth-year senior Christine “Peng-Peng” Lee needed a near perfect 9.975 for UCLA to win, although no one knew it at the time. ESPN must not have realized that fact either, as their cameras focused on the Oklahoma team preparing to celebrate its third straight national championship.
Peng walked up to Miss Val seconds before her performance. “Miss Val, this is my last routine ever. I’m going to enjoy every moment of it.” She did enjoy it, even looking around the arena during her performance. After her landing, fans and members of every team shouted “10, 10, 10,” and she got that perfect score.
The Bruins gymnasts, and Miss Val herself, cried uncontrollably, not because of the scores, but because they gave the best performances they could have. During those last two events, the team lived in the moment, competed knowing it would be the last time they would be together. They performed with love and gratitude, and they walked out as national champions.
Sometimes we are so focused on the outcome in our work that we fail to enjoy the journey. We respond to hundreds of emails mostly concerning other people’s problems. We race to finish reports or presentations even though we don’t really understand why they are important. We are given task after task to complete but often receive little or no feedback on how we are doing.
Remembering why we do what we do, and being grateful for the opportunity, could help us enjoy the process and the struggles. Gratitude keeps us appreciative of all we have and all that we accomplish, regardless of the result.
Gratitude helps you keep setbacks in perspective.
“I have lost tournaments. I have lost friendships. I have lost my father. I know that I can deal when things are bad. I can come back when things are at their worst. I’m not afraid of losing all my money or losing my career, because I know I’m capable of living in my car and rising up. Once you’ve conquered the worst things that could happen, there is no need to fear the unknown. You are fearless.”
– Ronda Rousey, first female champion in UFC history and Olympic bronze medalist in judo
Before winning a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts, Tony Dungy was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was successful with the Bucs, taking them to the NFC Championship Game before being fired by the Glazers, the owners of the team, in 2001.
Instead of being angry at losing his job, Dungy remained grateful to the Glazers. He remembered that they gave him his first opportunity to be a head coach in the NFL, a chance no one else gave him. He was grateful that God put him in the position to be a football coach in the first place. Rather than being upset, he filled his heart with gratitude.
He soon got the head coaching position in Indianapolis. Five years later, he won Super Bowl XLI, becoming the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl.
In whatever field you work in, you will experience setbacks throughout your career. You don’t get that promotion or bonus you want. You fail to meet your sales quota. You deliver a speech or presentation that fails to interest the audience.
Like Tony Dungy did after he was fired, focusing on the positives in your work and life can help you rebound from the setback. Sure, it won’t change what happened, but it might put you in a more positive frame of mind and help you get back on your feet.
Gratitude can motivate you when you’re struggling and working too hard.
“People ask where the medals are now and what I plan to do with them, and I don’t know the answer to either question…The medals are really only important if you can think about what it took to get them in the first place.”
– Michael Phelps, winner of 23 Olympic gold medals and arguably the best swimmer of all time
At a recent national medical conference during which he spoke and was recognized as the society’s Presidential Honored Athlete, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was asked how he defines greatness and what makes him great.
Brady’s response didn’t include hard work, drive, killer instinct or any of the traits we typically associate with people considered to be the greatest of all time at what they do.
Instead, Brady explained how gratitude makes him great.
Before he steps on the field each Sunday, the six-time Super Bowl winner reminds himself that he is playing not only for the name on the front of his jersey but also the name on the back of it. He thinks about all the people who have supported him during his 30-year sports career — coaches, teammates, doctors, and family.
He takes a moment to tell himself he represents all of those people who have supported him and who continue to support him, who believe in him. Those people encourage him when he isn’t at his best, and they motivate him to perform even better next time.
As he steps on the field in front of 70,000 screaming fans, Tom Brady is grateful for the people who have made his success possible.
It’s easy to dream of being the best in the world at what we do, like Tom Brady is among NFL quarterbacks. But we often fail to see what goes into that journey to becoming the best.
Brady has trained day after day for decades. He eats a plant-based diet and almost never strays from it. He endures aches and pains and the rehab each day to treat or prevent those injuries. He hears constant criticism from some fans and the media. And he faces the daily pressure of knowing the team’s success on the field is largely in his hands.
As he explained, gratitude helps him through those struggles.
In much the same way, focusing on what we have to be thankful for and all the people who have helped us and supported us in our training and careers won’t make those struggles go away. But that gratitude can help us focus on all that’s good in our work. It can help us thrive despite long hours, day after day for weeks and months on end.
Gratitude helps you appreciate your successes.
“People are generally very kind to me. And I consider those people to be my customers, the people who are supporting my life not just financially, but they’re supporting my artistic life and I’m grateful to them.”
– Harrison Ford, actor and star of multiple blockbuster movies that grossed over $5 billion.
In June 2013, U.S. Women’s National Team star Abby Wambach broke the record for most goals scored by a professional soccer player, male or female, ever. Seconds after a corner kick that she deftly headed past the goalkeeper, Abby didn’t think of how great she was or where that achievement placed her in comparison to other celebrated athletes.
No, she immediately thought of her teammates who passed to her to allow her to score. She thought of coaches who guided her over the years. She thought about future soccer stars who she would love to see break her record one day.
Unlike Abby Wambach, Alex Honnold is not a household name, but he is the best at what he does.
Honnold was the first person to ever perform a free solo climb of El Capitan. This is a 7,569-foot-tall rock formation in Yosemite National Park, and Honnold scaled it with no ropes, no harness, and no way to avoid certain death should he slip.
Honnold trained for years, improving his skills and learning every foothold and handhold on every pitch of El Cap. A film crew documented his journey, showing his daily training.
In the blockbuster documentary Free Solo, viewers see the people who helped and guided Honnold. We see Alex’s girlfriend Sanni, who supported his dream even though she was scared it would take him away from her.
On that incredible climb up the 7,500-foot rock, as Alex ascended the final pitch, he didn’t think of his personal greatness or the accomplishment of being the first climber to ever do what he had just done.
Alex thought of everyone who had helped him along the way. He wanted to celebrate and share his ascent with them. He savored the moment, filled with gratitude for the partners and friends who helped him achieve a lifelong dream.
Success isn’t all about us.
Sure, we control our destiny — how much we focus on our goals and dreams and eliminate distractions, how hard we work, how we persevere despite inevitable setbacks. But countless people have helped us get to where we are now, and where we will go in the future.
We can stay in our own bubble and focus on ourselves. We can worry about our own problems and focus on our own work. While that might seem like the best approach in the moment, it won’t help us get far in the long run.
Success, whether it’s on the field or court, or in the boardroom or sales department, is only achieved with others. We should take time every so often to think of who is helping us and express our gratitude for those people.
Find ways to add gratitude to your life.
No matter where you are in your work and life — in school, just starting a new job, putting in long hours to earn a promotion, leading a company at the top of its industry — you have reasons to be grateful. Even if you are frustrated in your job, or you even dread going to work or dream of retiring, use gratitude to fight the stress you feel.
Identify things or people you are grateful for. Maybe it’s gratitude for people who have helped you get to where you are now. Maybe it’s gratitude for getting the opportunity to do what you do. Maybe it’s gratitude for the challenges and setbacks that will make you stronger. Then take steps to focus on this gratitude every day.
Every morning when you wake up, write down three things or three people you’re grateful for. Try doing it again before you go to bed.
Keep a journal with you, and write down the positive events that happen throughout your day.
Keep an object in your pocket that reminds you to be grateful. Every time you feel it, when you reach for your keys, phone or anything else, make yourself think of something or someone you’re grateful for.
Find ways to make gratitude a daily part of your life. It will help you succeed in every way, and truly enjoy that success.
Hire Dr. Geier to speak to your organization.
Dr. David Geier is a popular leadership and burnout keynote speaker for corporate and medical audiences. Click here to learn more about how he can educate and inspire your audience. Or if you prefer, he can deliver an online webinar for your team or organization. Click here to learn more about Dr. Geier’s burnout webinars.
Ready to win in every aspect of your life?
I’ve created a checklist that will help you get more done, focus on what matters most, and succeed in every aspect of your life, every single day. If you adopt these qualities, your career and life will improve immediately.
Get The Champion Checklist here!
