Empowering Nurses at the Bedside and in Business

Where Are You Finding Joy In Your Life?

I remember when I was practicing nursing; it seemed that the rest of the world was on the weekday 9:00 to 5:00 schedule. However, I worked the 3:00 to 11:30 p.m. shift, five days a week and tried to make as much overtime as I could so I could pay back my student loans. My social life took a backseat.

Fortunately, I lived near the hospital so I could leave for work at 2:30 p.m. to be at work on time a half hour later.   I worked until 11:30 but, when I returned home, I couldn’t go right to sleep because I would need time to wind down from the shift. I would fall asleep about 1:00 a.m., staying in bed until maybe 10:00 a.m. and then go work out followed by some lunch before going to my next work shift. That was my life, five days a week.

I know many of you have a schedule like that. Where is the joy?

When I decided to go to law school, I was a unit manager at the hospital. That meant working from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday. After getting off work, I would study until 5:30 p.m. at which time I had law classes until 7:30 p.m. followed by dinner and more studying until time for bed. That was my life. Where, I asked myself, was the joy?

So many of us are on “auto-pilot,” going through the motions and hoping to get somewhere. For me, it was getting the law degree and, prior to that, just getting through the work day.

Life is too short to go through the motions. Again, I ask, where is the joy? If you don’t have joy in your life, how can you bring joy to your patients?

I suggest that you find five minutes a day, just five minutes to find joy in something. Do something that you absolutely love. It may be just taking a stroll to visit nature, sampling different types of tea or going to a flower shop to take in the wonderful smells …do something that brings you joy. I admit that when I first started this practice, I struggled to find 5 minutes or something that brought me joy. Obviously, that was my first clue that I really needed to find joy. Even for only five minutes a day, bring yourself some joy so that you can bring some joy to your patients.

Again, we’re here for too brief of a time to just go through the motions.

I hope you find joy in your life and in your practice.

Now, what are you going to do today to get your five minutes of joy?

 

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