After being in my profession for nearly ten years, I had developed many symptoms indicative of burnout. My performance was suffering greatly and I was forced to consider changing my profession. At the same time, I realized that I would probably end up having the same issues in my next job and instead of running away from a job that seemed to be ruining my life, I decided to 'book up'. Luckily, I discovered, and I am still not sure how, Thich Nhat Hahn's books. I studied their titles and bought the ones that addressed the most urgent issues in my life.
This book provides an excellent guideline for rethinking, but even more importantly 're-feeling' work. It is accompanied by effective exercises and sound advice, which I put into practice in order to increase my compassion and mindfulness at work. Sure enough, after about two weeks of solid practice and continual reading, I started to notice very profound changes. My stress response began to diminish and when deadlines got tight - as they always do - I remained cool and still managed to get a decent night's sleep before and after. My understanding for colleagues and superiors was nothing short of transformed. Though it had seemed harmless to hope that some colleagues/superiors learned their lesson, I realized through reading the book that this kind of vengeful thinking harmed me to a great deal as it represented an unresolved, ever-present conflict. Ultimately, I realized that the best way was to develop understanding and compassion, to realize that if someone does me wrong that they may potentially do so out great suffering and false perception in their life.
The intermittent meditations and mindfulness exercises helped me stop stress from mounting through the course of the day, which caused a series of stress-related symptoms. I can only imagine where I would have ended up had I not started this practice.
As soon as I realized that I was getting results, I didn't stop there and kept practicing, I was determined to have lasting results and actually am committed to practicing 'so long as I live' as overly emotional as it sounds, but honestly, I feel I have caused myself enough suffering through an untrained mind and am ready for a change.
One of the most positive changes is work performance - apart from understanding and compassion for instead of anger and frustration at colleagues. Mindfulness training enhanced my mental performance significantly. I was getting very difficult projects done faster, with fewer errors and with greater depth of understanding. Week for week my resilience at work is increasing and I am certain that this will result in the success I have been after all this time. At the same time though I have realized the success is already present that is family, friends, one's one health and peace of mind, which simply can't be bought and are much more precious that any superficial undertaking. Nonetheless, I am definitely not quitting my job, but instead continuing to enjoy all these things and to live with more balance.
I've always been interested in increasing my performance, which potentially my have taken me to the edge of burnout as I pushed too hard, but the books I read never manager to transform my work experience or life for that matter. This book has helped me turn around an increasingly hopeless situation and do a lot to contribute to better health and peace of mind. If would recommend it to anyone dealing with stress, conflict and dissatisfaction action work - sticking to the exercises on a daily (multi-day) basis really helped me make impressive progress physically, mentally, privately and professional. Like everything, the principles in this book need time to take effect, but I found them to be well worth it considering that I have tried for years to resolve these issues and this book helped make real progress within the space of weeks.
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