Some days ago I was at a work meeting where there was going to be a change in the manner of documentation and reporting for senior managers. The work I have done so far has not been in vain, it was not condemned to the black hole; I also dreaded the change could be far worse. Instead, there’s an air of optimism. A slight spring in my step.
Mental health is a serious issue. I have found myself trying to work something out when there are a lot of things I cannot change. Sometimes you might feel your performance is influenced by these other things and they sometimes work against you. You feel your thoughts and actions can be imprisoned, the outlook posed darker than before. So many occasions, I thought I am not asking about attention to myself, I am seeking understanding from others that my work outcome is influenced by a lot of other things that I have no control over.
Of course it would be nice to reinvent my work and reconfigure the dependencies which are those other things that influence my work. Doing that will probably put me on an island, since I have reinvented a new “world” that relates to nobody.
To have somebody understand your work situation is extremely comforting. Somebody who had been in the same job and walked the same way as you have. Your mental health improves, you no longer find yourself struggling in a tiny hole, the imagery of “trying to make a square fit into a circle” seems fitting. You feel there’s optimism in the air, you are alive, you now recognise the carefree bees and flowers beaming their sense of freedom to you.
My eyes diffused with a beaming ray. I woke, my prison flamed with light of release. My chains fell off – my heart was free. I got up, reached out and discovered a great friend. He understood and had been through the kind of mental struggle I had been through. If these words are familiar, they are from And Can It Be That I Should Gain.
