Winning the Kenyan Way "Train Hard, Win Easy" CLICK on the picture to read about this famous book with athletes!
Hello, my name is Karen Freberg, and I totally admit that I am a social media, public relations, and fabulous workaholic.
Well, that was quite the introduction to this blog post. 🙂 I have had several of my friends tell me that I should take it easy and make sure that I got some rest or “take a break” from my research and teaching obligations. From teaching two classes to working on my dissertation and various research projects, to going and traveling for conferences to now working on job applications, I have been pretty busy this past year. So I have to ask them – break, what does that mean? Does that mean taking an entire summer off from work? Or does that mean taking some time to relax and then go back to work. What I have found is that we are indeed living in a different business and professional environment – each of us has to work harder, do more, spend more time on various projects and multitask, and all of this with limited resources and staff. We do not have the luxury today to not be working hard. My Dad would have a saying that we would mention during our track workouts – work hard, win easy. If you put in the time, energy, and dedication to make sure that you can be all you can be – it will definitely pay off.
So the question is, do we now all of a sudden live in a workaholic culture? I say that it has always been there, and this is the way of the future. There have always been researchers, students, athletes, and professionals who have invested the time and energy to learn more about their profession, spent the extra hour or two researching on a project, or making sure that every minute they spend it worthwhile. This has always been the case – but it appears that society is getting a wake up call on it. However, while I understand that there are some people that are concerned about working harder than before, I do understand that it does take doing a little bit each way. Being in track and field for ten years really taught me this lesson – my Dad and I would work out every day – the only days off I had were either when I was not feeling well, injured, or traveling and resting up for a competition. We even practiced after opening presents on Christmas. But the point is – we didn’t go and have a traditional workout – we went out and stretched out and made sure that we were out and about.
So, how is this translated to working, researching, and practicing in public relations? Well, there were some good suggestions on how this is done by an article that appeared in Public Relations Tactics. After looking at these, here are some of my suggestions that I think are good to keep in mind as well:
- Take one day at a time: Make sure that you do something each day – determine how you feel and make sure that the activities that you do fits your mood at the moment. There are times where I can really be creative in my design and writing, and there are days where I work on collecting and reading research. Work should not be the end of the world and if you look at everything all at once – yes, that can be a little challenging to see. Take baby steps and make manageable goals and tasks to accomplish each day. Be organized with your deadlines and obligations on projects – the more you can do this – the better you will feel. There are certainly apps for that. 🙂
- Exercise the mind and body equally: Make the time to not only do work for your profession, but also take the time to exercise and workout. Take an exercise class that is scheduled and will give you an intense, but great workout. You will feel mentally refreshed and ready to do some more work. My favorite classes are cycling and kickboxing – and there have been days where I have done both!
- Eat right – make sure that you are listening to your body’s needs: You want to make sure that you take care of your immune system and so you can avoid getting sick or under the weather. Fresh vegetables, fruits, and a balanced diet is the best thing that you can do. Eating right is an investment – but your health is absolutely important.
- By putting in the effort today, it will make life easier down the road: Don’t view work as being an all-day event – if you are efficient with your time and completely focused in the project with your energy, then you will be more effective if you think that it will take seven hours to do a project, but in reality it can take two if you are totally focused. We did this in track workouts with weightlifting. Our weightlifting workouts were an hour long – but they were super intense. The results – well, they were very good if I may say so myself. 🙂
The point is – if public relations professionals today took the attitude of what an athlete goes through in their daily lives with managing multiple things and making each workout count each day, week, and month – it is a 12-month job, 365 days a year. Having this mentality from being an athlete, I see that the workaholic lifestyle is the same in academics. In some ways, it is similar – just a different arena, but the same principles and practices apply. So, I do consider myself to be working a lot, but I wouldn’t have it any other way – because I know that it will help me down the road to be a better and more effective researcher, professional, and person for the future.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
Karen
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