May 11, 2025 • 16 mins
Self-care isn’t just a buzzword. It’s so important for career success, especially when living with vision loss.
In this episode, we will chat through practical ways to prioritise your wellbeing, manage stress and enhance your career performance to be your best self in the workplace.
Special guest speaker: Professor Nick Titov, Executive Director at Mindspot.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:05):
Hi and welcome to season two of the Vision Australia podcast,
The Career Path. Today we're diving into something that affects
us all self care. We'll be discussing practical ways to
prioritise our wellbeing in the workplace so we can show
up as our best selves. I'm Sam Culley, your host
(00:26):
and Vision Australia Radio's community assistant for national programs. I'm
thrilled to be part of this series where we'll be
helping people in the blind and low vision community feel confident,
capable and ready to crush it in their careers. This
episode will be recorded, so feel free to hit pause,
(00:46):
take a breather, and come back to it whenever works
for you. You can find all the episodes by searching
Vision Australia's The Career Path on your go to podcast platform. Today,
I'm excited to be joined by professor Nick Titov, Executive
Director at Mindspot. Welcome, Nick.
S2 (01:07):
Sam, thank you very much for having me.
S1 (01:09):
Now, Nick, let's start off with a bit of an
explainer of self-care. So as people may or may not
be aware, self-care is key to job readiness. So how
can prioritizing self-care, such as managing stress and maintaining physical health,
boost your confidence and improve your chances of success in
(01:32):
the job search process?
S2 (01:34):
I think it's really important to to reflect on the
reality of jobs today, and what I mean by that
is recognizing that the jobs that people do these days
tend to be much more varied in terms of the
kinds of activities and tasks and skills that people need.
And what that usually does is that increases potentially the
stress on pressure on people to perform. Now, on the
(01:58):
one hand, that's challenging, but on the other, it provides
fantastic opportunities for people to thrive and shine as as
you indicated in your introductory remarks. And by practicing self-care
on a daily basis, people have an opportunity to really
shine in the workplace. And I'm happy to provide some
examples in the moment.
S1 (02:17):
And we'll definitely get back to that. But I want
to also just quickly touch on the role that mental
health can play, either to benefit or hinder job performance. So,
you know, why is looking after your mental health so
crucial for career success, and how can managing mental wellbeing
(02:38):
improve job performance and confidence?
S2 (02:41):
Also, I really like the way you framed that. Many
people talk about the need to just to stay mentally well,
that is avoid deterioration. But the way you framed it,
it's actually not just about staying well and surviving. The
question is also about how can we thrive? And that
assumes that we know how to look after ourselves and
we're going to be fine. But in fact, we want
(03:03):
to be great. And that's really important because as you know,
if you feel overwhelmed, much of your energy is about
surviving unpleasant symptoms or feelings. But if you're doing well,
you can put your energy into thriving in your career.
And I'm happy to give you an example of that's helpful.
S1 (03:22):
I'd love one. That sounds great.
S2 (03:24):
Look, one of the things which a lot of people
may not know is that symptoms like anxiety and stress
are actually triggered. They're almost predictable, and they're often triggered
by uncertainty and fear of evaluation. Now, one of the
things about new job roles is that naturally, they have
some uncertainty. And by recognizing that you're going to be
(03:45):
triggered because every role is uncertain, you can actually then
take active steps to try to control and reduce that
stress by reducing that uncertainty. And the flip side of
that is increasing what you know. So I encourage people
when they're applying for jobs and roles to actually ask
really important basic questions which reduce the uncertainty. So for example,
(04:08):
what are the specific tasks and deliverables for the role
which they're applying for? What do they actually need to
do to succeed? What are the skills required? Do they
have them all? Or if not, how will they get them?
Who do they report to? What's the culture of the place?
What is the organization trying to achieve? And how can
the applicant help it achieve that? Now those kinds of
(04:29):
questions generally can be answered quite quickly, but they provide
a lot of certainty and they make the uncertain certain,
so to speak. And by doing that, the person can
concentrate on being able to thrive in the role rather
than worry about the role.
S1 (04:46):
And Nick, just sidestepping now, and this isn't really a
far jump if you think about it, because we're going
from the role of mental health and wellbeing to building
resilience through self-care. So how can developing a strong self-care
routine help someone build resilience, enabling them to stay motivated
(05:07):
and focusing on their careers.
S2 (05:09):
Okay, so this is, I think, really good to reflect on.
And it's also a little bit about what helps to
recognise that self-care routines are really about setting up a
series of specific actions that work for you, and setting
them up in such a way that you actually don't
have to think about them. That is, you create routines, habits,
(05:30):
or rituals, so to speak, which keep you well. So,
for example, I have a friend who works from home
and before work they walk around the block and after
work they do the same. That's a really simple routine.
But what they they tell me really is nice about
it is that it's predictable. They get their exercise, they
get to have some fresh air. They get to say
(05:52):
hello to the neighbours. They get to wind up and
wind down at the start and the end of each day.
And they don't do it every day. They may do
it three days out of five, but it's enough to
keep them well. And it's an example of a very
simple sequence of actions which, when you build it into
a habit and routine, it has all of these potential benefits.
S1 (06:14):
Speaking of habits and routines, Nick, I'd love to talk
about a very big one. So this is the importance
of sleep. And as we all know, sleep and rest
are essential for job success, but also general health and
wellbeing in, you know, your everyday life. It just permeates
into so many areas. So why is good sleep essential
(06:39):
for staying productive and focused at work? And how can
better sleep habits support career growth?
S2 (06:45):
Look, I'm so delighted that you have raised this issue.
It's something which we're learning more about in terms of
the benefits of sleep and the benefits of good sleep
habits and the data, the research, the clinical experience shows
that the experience of sleep is a fundamental process which
is essential for both physiological and psychological well-being during sleep.
(07:10):
We recover physically, but we also recover psychologically. And one
of the challenges, of course, which many of us will recognize,
is that the technology we take to bed tends to
stimulate us. And what that actually does is almost counter
our body's natural desire to wind down and relax. Now, consequently,
we may find that we are jaded. We're not getting
(07:34):
enough deep sleep or REM sleep. And that has enormous impacts,
not just on our energy levels, but our ability to concentrate,
to engage, to actually maintain. If you like, our emotional regulation.
We can't bring our A-game if we're feeling tired and grumpy.
So sleep is critical in building good sleep habits and
(07:56):
routines is really critical, not just for career progression success.
But I think for everyday life, frankly.
S1 (08:03):
I want to keep on that physical aspect. In talking
about physical health now, physical health plays a key role
in job readiness for people with vision loss. So how
can maintaining physical health through regular exercise and healthy eating
contribute to greater energy and focus in the workplace?
S2 (08:24):
Sam, again, great question, and I think we probably have
underestimated as a society how important basic physical fitness is. And,
you know, by virtue of being able to work at home,
many of us maybe won't be as active as we
were before. Physically, that is, now that's important because being
physically active actually builds our fitness, and one of the
(08:47):
things about employment and roles and jobs is that it
actually requires a minimum level of physical fitness, not just
to walk around the office, but to actually be able
to have the energy to sustain conversations and meetings and paperwork.
Or talk to customers or. Or whatever the job involves.
And ensuring that we stay physically healthy. We're getting a
(09:09):
little bit of exercise. It doesn't have to be onerous,
but 3 or 4 times a day can help us
with our work readiness and our work fitness.
S1 (09:18):
Tying back to what we were talking about a little
bit earlier in the conversation, job searching. It can be stressful,
with a potential added layer of worry for those with
vision loss. So how can managing stress and anxiety through
self-care practices help people with vision loss to feel more
confident and capable during the job search and interview process?
S2 (09:43):
Oh look again, great question. And I was reflecting on
this podcast and really reflecting on what is it that
we are talking about when we're talking about job hunting
or actually engaging in employment? And I was reflecting on
how when people apply for a job. It's probably useful
to think of that actually as a job. That is,
(10:04):
it requires time, organization preparation requires motivation and consistent effort.
And finding the job is not just one activity. There's
the piece which is around getting your CV together, finding
potential roles, applying, interviewing, negotiating, and then starting and transitioning.
And so if you think about job hunting as a
(10:27):
job and you think about self-care in that context, then
you can start to plan your approach. And one of
the things about self-care is, is that it's not just
about staying grounded, staying calm, staying physically and psychologically healthy.
It's actually about being active in terms of reducing, as
I mentioned before, uncertainty, stress and anxiety. So a very
(10:51):
simple strategy, which I think a lot of people find
helpful when it comes to finding employment. Job hunting, so
to speak, is to develop a plan, a timetable, to
give themselves a structure, and by doing that they can
organise all the tasks they need to do. But they
can also build in self-care, physical self-care, including making sure
(11:13):
they go to bed early, eating healthy foods each day,
getting a little bit of exercise, making sure they're taking
time at the end of the day to wind down
and ground. So there's things which people can do from
a self-care perspective during the job hunting process to, if
you like, optimise their chance of success.
S1 (11:33):
And Nick really keen to also jump into how mind
sports big five can help. But just before we do that,
I'll just give a bit of context for people out there.
Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in navigating the job
search process, and self-care is key to nurturing it. So
(11:55):
how can understanding the Big Five behavior model combined with
self-care strategies help people with vision loss to improve their
emotional well-being and workplace relationships. But just before we do that,
I also might get you to quickly give a bit
of an overview of the Big Five model and what
(12:18):
that entails.
S2 (12:20):
Okay. Thank you. So just very briefly, we have been
for quite a number of years looking at trying to
identify out of all the things people can do, what
are the most important things for their mental health. And
what we've done is run quite a number of trials
in recent years. Clinical trials and projects with a total
of about 26,000 Australians so far. And that number is
(12:43):
increasing pretty much every day. But what we found is
that there are five key groups of activities which are
really strongly linked to mental health. And basically, the more
people do these activities, the more likely they are to
have good mental health. Now, they're not a panacea. They
won't cure all mental health ills. But what we do
(13:03):
know is that people do them regularly. They're really likely
to be able to stay grounded. And they're quite simple.
They're a nice way. If you like to practice self-care.
The Big five include doing meaningful activities, things we love
and enjoy, regularly practicing healthy thinking, which is about staying
grounded and calm and keeping perspective even in challenging situations.
(13:24):
Having goals and plans. That is things to look forward to.
Having healthy routines such as getting regular exercise, making sure
you go to bed and get up at a reasonable
time every day, and having social connections that is staying
connected with people you love. You can see, Sam, that
these five groups of actions meaningful activities, healthy thinking, goals
and plans, healthy routines and social connections are really a
(13:49):
really simple self-care model. And we know that when people
are going through difficult times, these are the kinds of
actions which people do less of resolve and people are unwell.
Or when they're under pressure, they often stop doing things
such as the things they love to do, the meaningful activities,
their healthy routines may fall over. They may not connect
with others. So in the context of searching for jobs
(14:12):
or while you're in employment, the big five, we've found,
is a really simple framework for people to just check
in with themselves. Are they doing enough of these things
every week to keep themselves going? You don't have to
do these things every day, but if you can do
them at least half the days of the week, then
our data from a very large number of people shows
(14:33):
that these are the things which can help you stay resilient,
which has enormous implications for our ability to function at work,
including our workplace relationships.
S1 (14:44):
And a lot of it does sound very sensible, very actionable.
A lot of those things, people no doubt nodding their heads,
listening along, thinking, hey, I could do that. That sounds
really easy. And there's so many great little things, little
simple things every day that people can get involved with
and improve their health and wellbeing. So it's a fantastic
(15:05):
thing to jump into and have a go. A huge
thank you to professor Nick for joining us today. What
an interesting episode packed with insightful tips and ideas. We
hope you've walked away with a few new strategies to
help you boost your wellbeing to really thrive in the workplace.
This podcast is accessible on all major podcast platforms, so
(15:29):
remember to like, subscribe and share it with your friends.
Simply search for Vision Australia's The Career Path to find
this episode and the rest of the series. The Career
Path has been funded by the Department of Social Services. Nick,
thank you again for your time today. It's been an
absolute pleasure to catch up with you and chat all
(15:52):
about self care on this episode of The Career Path.
S2 (15:56):
Sam, thank you very much.
Hi and welcome to season two of the Vision Australia podcast,
The Career Path. Today we're diving into something that affects
us all self care. We'll be discussing practical ways to
prioritise our wellbeing in the workplace so we can show
up as our best selves. I'm Sam Culley, your host
(00:26):
and Vision Australia Radio's community assistant for national programs. I'm
thrilled to be part of this series where we'll be
helping people in the blind and low vision community feel confident,
capable and ready to crush it in their careers. This
episode will be recorded, so feel free to hit pause,
(00:46):
take a breather, and come back to it whenever works
for you. You can find all the episodes by searching
Vision Australia's The Career Path on your go to podcast platform. Today,
I'm excited to be joined by professor Nick Titov, Executive
Director at Mindspot. Welcome, Nick.
S2 (01:07):
Sam, thank you very much for having me.
S1 (01:09):
Now, Nick, let's start off with a bit of an
explainer of self-care. So as people may or may not
be aware, self-care is key to job readiness. So how
can prioritizing self-care, such as managing stress and maintaining physical health,
boost your confidence and improve your chances of success in
(01:32):
the job search process?
S2 (01:34):
I think it's really important to to reflect on the
reality of jobs today, and what I mean by that
is recognizing that the jobs that people do these days
tend to be much more varied in terms of the
kinds of activities and tasks and skills that people need.
And what that usually does is that increases potentially the
stress on pressure on people to perform. Now, on the
(01:58):
one hand, that's challenging, but on the other, it provides
fantastic opportunities for people to thrive and shine as as
you indicated in your introductory remarks. And by practicing self-care
on a daily basis, people have an opportunity to really
shine in the workplace. And I'm happy to provide some
examples in the moment.
S1 (02:17):
And we'll definitely get back to that. But I want
to also just quickly touch on the role that mental
health can play, either to benefit or hinder job performance. So,
you know, why is looking after your mental health so
crucial for career success, and how can managing mental wellbeing
(02:38):
improve job performance and confidence?
S2 (02:41):
Also, I really like the way you framed that. Many
people talk about the need to just to stay mentally well,
that is avoid deterioration. But the way you framed it,
it's actually not just about staying well and surviving. The
question is also about how can we thrive? And that
assumes that we know how to look after ourselves and
we're going to be fine. But in fact, we want
(03:03):
to be great. And that's really important because as you know,
if you feel overwhelmed, much of your energy is about
surviving unpleasant symptoms or feelings. But if you're doing well,
you can put your energy into thriving in your career.
And I'm happy to give you an example of that's helpful.
S1 (03:22):
I'd love one. That sounds great.
S2 (03:24):
Look, one of the things which a lot of people
may not know is that symptoms like anxiety and stress
are actually triggered. They're almost predictable, and they're often triggered
by uncertainty and fear of evaluation. Now, one of the
things about new job roles is that naturally, they have
some uncertainty. And by recognizing that you're going to be
(03:45):
triggered because every role is uncertain, you can actually then
take active steps to try to control and reduce that
stress by reducing that uncertainty. And the flip side of
that is increasing what you know. So I encourage people
when they're applying for jobs and roles to actually ask
really important basic questions which reduce the uncertainty. So for example,
(04:08):
what are the specific tasks and deliverables for the role
which they're applying for? What do they actually need to
do to succeed? What are the skills required? Do they
have them all? Or if not, how will they get them?
Who do they report to? What's the culture of the place?
What is the organization trying to achieve? And how can
the applicant help it achieve that? Now those kinds of
(04:29):
questions generally can be answered quite quickly, but they provide
a lot of certainty and they make the uncertain certain,
so to speak. And by doing that, the person can
concentrate on being able to thrive in the role rather
than worry about the role.
S1 (04:46):
And Nick, just sidestepping now, and this isn't really a
far jump if you think about it, because we're going
from the role of mental health and wellbeing to building
resilience through self-care. So how can developing a strong self-care
routine help someone build resilience, enabling them to stay motivated
(05:07):
and focusing on their careers.
S2 (05:09):
Okay, so this is, I think, really good to reflect on.
And it's also a little bit about what helps to
recognise that self-care routines are really about setting up a
series of specific actions that work for you, and setting
them up in such a way that you actually don't
have to think about them. That is, you create routines, habits,
(05:30):
or rituals, so to speak, which keep you well. So,
for example, I have a friend who works from home
and before work they walk around the block and after
work they do the same. That's a really simple routine.
But what they they tell me really is nice about
it is that it's predictable. They get their exercise, they
get to have some fresh air. They get to say
(05:52):
hello to the neighbours. They get to wind up and
wind down at the start and the end of each day.
And they don't do it every day. They may do
it three days out of five, but it's enough to
keep them well. And it's an example of a very
simple sequence of actions which, when you build it into
a habit and routine, it has all of these potential benefits.
S1 (06:14):
Speaking of habits and routines, Nick, I'd love to talk
about a very big one. So this is the importance
of sleep. And as we all know, sleep and rest
are essential for job success, but also general health and
wellbeing in, you know, your everyday life. It just permeates
into so many areas. So why is good sleep essential
(06:39):
for staying productive and focused at work? And how can
better sleep habits support career growth?
S2 (06:45):
Look, I'm so delighted that you have raised this issue.
It's something which we're learning more about in terms of
the benefits of sleep and the benefits of good sleep
habits and the data, the research, the clinical experience shows
that the experience of sleep is a fundamental process which
is essential for both physiological and psychological well-being during sleep.
(07:10):
We recover physically, but we also recover psychologically. And one
of the challenges, of course, which many of us will recognize,
is that the technology we take to bed tends to
stimulate us. And what that actually does is almost counter
our body's natural desire to wind down and relax. Now, consequently,
we may find that we are jaded. We're not getting
(07:34):
enough deep sleep or REM sleep. And that has enormous impacts,
not just on our energy levels, but our ability to concentrate,
to engage, to actually maintain. If you like, our emotional regulation.
We can't bring our A-game if we're feeling tired and grumpy.
So sleep is critical in building good sleep habits and
(07:56):
routines is really critical, not just for career progression success.
But I think for everyday life, frankly.
S1 (08:03):
I want to keep on that physical aspect. In talking
about physical health now, physical health plays a key role
in job readiness for people with vision loss. So how
can maintaining physical health through regular exercise and healthy eating
contribute to greater energy and focus in the workplace?
S2 (08:24):
Sam, again, great question, and I think we probably have
underestimated as a society how important basic physical fitness is. And,
you know, by virtue of being able to work at home,
many of us maybe won't be as active as we
were before. Physically, that is, now that's important because being
physically active actually builds our fitness, and one of the
(08:47):
things about employment and roles and jobs is that it
actually requires a minimum level of physical fitness, not just
to walk around the office, but to actually be able
to have the energy to sustain conversations and meetings and paperwork.
Or talk to customers or. Or whatever the job involves.
And ensuring that we stay physically healthy. We're getting a
(09:09):
little bit of exercise. It doesn't have to be onerous,
but 3 or 4 times a day can help us
with our work readiness and our work fitness.
S1 (09:18):
Tying back to what we were talking about a little
bit earlier in the conversation, job searching. It can be stressful,
with a potential added layer of worry for those with
vision loss. So how can managing stress and anxiety through
self-care practices help people with vision loss to feel more
confident and capable during the job search and interview process?
S2 (09:43):
Oh look again, great question. And I was reflecting on
this podcast and really reflecting on what is it that
we are talking about when we're talking about job hunting
or actually engaging in employment? And I was reflecting on
how when people apply for a job. It's probably useful
to think of that actually as a job. That is,
(10:04):
it requires time, organization preparation requires motivation and consistent effort.
And finding the job is not just one activity. There's
the piece which is around getting your CV together, finding
potential roles, applying, interviewing, negotiating, and then starting and transitioning.
And so if you think about job hunting as a
(10:27):
job and you think about self-care in that context, then
you can start to plan your approach. And one of
the things about self-care is, is that it's not just
about staying grounded, staying calm, staying physically and psychologically healthy.
It's actually about being active in terms of reducing, as
I mentioned before, uncertainty, stress and anxiety. So a very
(10:51):
simple strategy, which I think a lot of people find
helpful when it comes to finding employment. Job hunting, so
to speak, is to develop a plan, a timetable, to
give themselves a structure, and by doing that they can
organise all the tasks they need to do. But they
can also build in self-care, physical self-care, including making sure
(11:13):
they go to bed early, eating healthy foods each day,
getting a little bit of exercise, making sure they're taking
time at the end of the day to wind down
and ground. So there's things which people can do from
a self-care perspective during the job hunting process to, if
you like, optimise their chance of success.
S1 (11:33):
And Nick really keen to also jump into how mind
sports big five can help. But just before we do that,
I'll just give a bit of context for people out there.
Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in navigating the job
search process, and self-care is key to nurturing it. So
(11:55):
how can understanding the Big Five behavior model combined with
self-care strategies help people with vision loss to improve their
emotional well-being and workplace relationships. But just before we do that,
I also might get you to quickly give a bit
of an overview of the Big Five model and what
(12:18):
that entails.
S2 (12:20):
Okay. Thank you. So just very briefly, we have been
for quite a number of years looking at trying to
identify out of all the things people can do, what
are the most important things for their mental health. And
what we've done is run quite a number of trials
in recent years. Clinical trials and projects with a total
of about 26,000 Australians so far. And that number is
(12:43):
increasing pretty much every day. But what we found is
that there are five key groups of activities which are
really strongly linked to mental health. And basically, the more
people do these activities, the more likely they are to
have good mental health. Now, they're not a panacea. They
won't cure all mental health ills. But what we do
(13:03):
know is that people do them regularly. They're really likely
to be able to stay grounded. And they're quite simple.
They're a nice way. If you like to practice self-care.
The Big five include doing meaningful activities, things we love
and enjoy, regularly practicing healthy thinking, which is about staying
grounded and calm and keeping perspective even in challenging situations.
(13:24):
Having goals and plans. That is things to look forward to.
Having healthy routines such as getting regular exercise, making sure
you go to bed and get up at a reasonable
time every day, and having social connections that is staying
connected with people you love. You can see, Sam, that
these five groups of actions meaningful activities, healthy thinking, goals
and plans, healthy routines and social connections are really a
(13:49):
really simple self-care model. And we know that when people
are going through difficult times, these are the kinds of
actions which people do less of resolve and people are unwell.
Or when they're under pressure, they often stop doing things
such as the things they love to do, the meaningful activities,
their healthy routines may fall over. They may not connect
with others. So in the context of searching for jobs
(14:12):
or while you're in employment, the big five, we've found,
is a really simple framework for people to just check
in with themselves. Are they doing enough of these things
every week to keep themselves going? You don't have to
do these things every day, but if you can do
them at least half the days of the week, then
our data from a very large number of people shows
(14:33):
that these are the things which can help you stay resilient,
which has enormous implications for our ability to function at work,
including our workplace relationships.
S1 (14:44):
And a lot of it does sound very sensible, very actionable.
A lot of those things, people no doubt nodding their heads,
listening along, thinking, hey, I could do that. That sounds
really easy. And there's so many great little things, little
simple things every day that people can get involved with
and improve their health and wellbeing. So it's a fantastic
(15:05):
thing to jump into and have a go. A huge
thank you to professor Nick for joining us today. What
an interesting episode packed with insightful tips and ideas. We
hope you've walked away with a few new strategies to
help you boost your wellbeing to really thrive in the workplace.
This podcast is accessible on all major podcast platforms, so
(15:29):
remember to like, subscribe and share it with your friends.
Simply search for Vision Australia's The Career Path to find
this episode and the rest of the series. The Career
Path has been funded by the Department of Social Services. Nick,
thank you again for your time today. It's been an
absolute pleasure to catch up with you and chat all
(15:52):
about self care on this episode of The Career Path.
S2 (15:56):
Sam, thank you very much.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.