Love, TTEC, and You – a Conversation on Self-care

February is known for being the month of love, full of romance and sweetness for our significant others, families, and friends. It’s a period of candlelit dinners, love letters, and big, showy acts of care. The season for flowers, chocolates, and stuffed toys! At TTEC though, we wanted to focus our February love on the most important thing: you!

We want to remind you that the most important loving relationship we’re supposed to have is with ourselves. The idea of saying “I love me!” might sound a tad bit self-centered, but it’s actually a very important part of our well-being. When TTEC talks about delivering humanity to business, it means working and living with empathy for each other and most especially for ourselves.

Self-love is unique to every person. Self-care can be eating a heathy fruit smoothie or a pint of ice cream. (Both delicious, though!) Hanging out with friends or reading a book alone in a room, both can create happiness. Let’s have a conversation about the many ways we can love ourselves.

Say yes to internal praise

We all have an inner critic inside us. Did you miss a deadline? Were your work metrics not as good as before? Expect some critical thoughts to pop up in your head. But as much as we want everyone to reach for amazing when dealing with customers and colleagues, to believe in optimism’s power to create positive results, let’s apply this approach to ourselves too. Talk to yourself with love! Give yourself compliments and pats on the back!

Managed a difficult call with grace? Call yourself an excellent diplomat! Found a creative solution to a problem? Tell yourself you’re brilliant! More importantly, celebrate what makes you different. What’s unique about you is what makes you awesome! Diversity is TTEC’s strength!

Also, avoid judging yourself too much. Provide yourself a healthy amount of forgiveness. No one is expected to do work perfectly, no matter what your inner critic says. If we’re able to treat ourselves with understanding and support, we’ll be able to do the same for each other easily. We’re called to stand behind our colleagues and remember that when one wins, we all win. To truly act as one, we actually have to start by understanding ourselves.

Accepting our imperfection, especially during moments of stress, will help us find the same empathy for our colleagues. And, when most people in TTEC do this, we’ll find ourselves surrounded by positive and compassionate colleagues. Isn’t that just the ideal work environment? So, never beat yourself up too much about mistakes. Get up, smile, and try again. We want you to!

Take the reins of your own happiness

We all have our personal journeys of self-care. If we consciously take charge of this important duty, we can lead our own well-being. TTEC empowers everyone to own our results and our impact on others and the company; this also applies to our happiness.

So, lead your own happiness every day. Don’t be afraid to talk to your leaders about your well-being. Learn the power of saying no, when your plate is already full and stress is dominating your life. Start your own conversation about self-care with your colleagues.

Self-love helps us improve all other relationships: family, friends, colleagues, customers, and more! A great attitude towards ourselves promotes better connections with everyone else and nurtures a positive community culture.

Make sound decisions for your health

TTEC also encourages our community to act with respect in everything we do. This is part of doing the right thing, and this applies to how we relate to ourselves, not just those we work with. Self-love is about valuing your own well-being and not always sacrificing it to accomplish other goals.

Planning to lose sleep to finish a presentation - again? Skipping lunch to attend another meeting, for the third day in a row? Consider that those choices won’t be good for your long-term well-being. Value your physical and mental health, so you can be the best version of yourself for longer.

Pamper your body, emotions, and energy regularly. Eat healthy food, delicious food, or better yet delicious, healthy food! Get up and stretch throughout the work day. Take breaks to refresh your energy. Disconnect from your phone and computer. Go for walks (with your face mask and shield on of course!) or practice some fitness routines at home.

Allow yourself a carefree, dynamic life

Most importantly, TTEC wants you to live life passionately! We want to celebrate, laugh, and have fun together. Start by laugh at yourself more! Don’t take yourself or life too seriously.

Try something new and unfamiliar, whether in your professional or personal life. Take on a new work task and just have fun with it. Do your best and let yourself explore. TTEC loves to give its employees an opportunity to grow and forge their own career path.

You can also take on a new hobby. Just start something – painting, journaling, photography, anything really – and make a mess of it. Get wild with your creativity! Allow some silliness and newness into your life.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to taking care of our well-being. There are plenty more resources online that talk about self-care and give even more insight into how valuable it is. We encourage everyone to learn more and practice more self-love, so we can grow together as a healthy TeleTech community.