A guide for successful young adults.

There are a lot of young adults and millennials who are lucky and skilled enough to achieve early success in their careers. They are rockstars and it’s amazing!! But, although they are successful young adults early on in their careers, the financial success and admiration comes with a heavy cost.

Firstly, millennials and young adults that are go-getters and advance quickly are held to very high standards of excellence. At the beginning, this is manageable. And, if you’re this type of personality, you know that you are always striving for perfection.

Yet, life happens. And, potential disagreements or stress overall at work can lead to breaks in top performance. Just one small misstep can begin a spiral of events that could lead to dismissal from the job. This bears so much pressure.

There are all kinds of expectations. The key is avoiding burnout.

With the daily pressure of having to outperform yourself regularly or face potentially losing your job, how can one go about maintaining their mental health?? It’s hard!

For one, you are expected to be an expert in your industry. What does that mean? Homework. And lots of it. You’ll need to be constantly reading and keeping up on industry news if you want to be better than the next guy or gal in your career.

Next, you’ll be expected to not only go above and beyond in your position, but also be a politician. You’re on the spot every day to walk that fine line between professionalism and friendliness. “Putting on a show” every day of happiness and contentment is draining.

Finally, and these are obviously just a few of the many, many pressures we get put up to in our careers, to set ourselves apart, we have to head into the office early and leave late. How can we have enough time to take care of ourselves?

New ways for successful young adults to not burnout mentally

• Remember it’s a journey

 

• • • The faster you go, the faster you go down. You don’t need to speed ahead. In fact. deliberately pacing yourself can help you get positive nods from upper management. They’ll appreciate your steadiness.

 

• Just don’t do it

 

• • • This is hard for perfectionists and go-getters. When a task is at hand, and someone needs help, don’t always be the first person to offer. Think about the time and effort it will take you and what benefits you would get from doing it. If you’re a people-pleaser, this is a challenge. Yet, if you reserve your energy for the tasks you’re best at, you’ll conserve your time and deliver a better project to your team.

 

• It’s just another day

 

• • • Had a good day? Had a bad day? Either way, don’t get too excited about it. When you think about your day and your career in general from a spacious point of view (like a birds-eye view of your own life), you can practice being unattached to the outcome of your efforts, good or bad. This way, you try your best every day, but you lose the stress of judging your performance. When you do your best (but don’t over or under-do it!), the outcome has no reflection of your worth.

 

• Sunshine and water

 

• • • This one you’ve heard before, but think about it this way. Every living organism needs sunlight and water to live. So do you. If you’re not getting enough sunshine before noon each day (when your body has the best capability to soak it up), you are wilting yourself (like a plant would in similar conditions).

 

• Get a counselor (think of it as a life advisor)

 

• • Someone told me one time that successful people have a board of advisors. This could range from anyone from a counselor like me, your massage therapist, a mentor, your doctor, a business coach, etc. If you want to avoid burnout in your career, it’s a good idea to think about your personal board of directors.

 

About the Author

Katie Bisbee-Peek MA, LPC, NCC is the creator of Peek Counseling, a place for fellow millennials and young adults to seek counseling for every day and more challenging issues. A common theme is career burnout. It happens to us all, but it seems that young adults in this generation are putting more pressure on themselves than ever before. The amount of hours and time commitment to some corporate and high-powered careers is unsustainable for a balanced life.  

However, with an outlet to talk about it, and encouragement for self-care, successful young adults can manage their high-level careers and have a more peaceful life too. If this article hit home for you, consider coming in for a session.