“I suggest to clients that they replace those thoughts with recalling what brought them into this job and what aspects they enjoy.”Īnother way to redirect your attitude is to visualize what you’ll gain. “If you focus on how burned out you are or how much you hate your boss, then that’s the way you’ll think and feel,” said Dee Cascio, a life and retirement coach in Sterling, Va. Endlessly telling yourself, “I can’t stand it here” or “I’ll never be able to make it through another month here, much less a year or two” won’t help.

Impose a time limit on how often you will stew in anger or self-pity. You can either gripe at every available opportunity - lamenting your situation, lambasting higher-ups and regretting career moves you made years ago - or find a more productive way to cope. In rallying yourself to reach the finish line, you have a choice.

To make matters worse, an odious boss tears away at the thinning shreds of sanity you cling to. Cynicism and negativity cloud your every thought. Perhaps you’re bored or exhausted in your job. But your financial plan dictates that you keep generating income into the early 2020s so that you can retire with a comfortable nest egg.

Surviving the pre-engaged state