I love watching commercials. It probably had to do with a college assignment from my public speaking class that had us students studying TV commercials. So to this day, some 40 years later, I enjoy watching commercials.

There is a commercial that I like, where a young lady is complaining about a boyfriend. Her friend points out that he likely has a problem with making a commitment than they say, “You’re not a mechanic. You don’t have to fix them.”

I laugh everytime I hear that because it’s funny and so true for so many of us — especially caregivers.

Wanting to help others is not a bad thing, but if you’re not a mechanic you’ll over burden yourself with stress that you don’t have to carry. Excess and unnecessary stress usually gets dumped on our families at the end of the day.

When we stay in the lane of our discipline we are guarding the value of our care by doing that one thing right. We must keep our focus on the one thing we are called to do. If we get out of our lane trying to fix everything we become a master of nothing.

Every discipline in the health care workforce has its own unique stress level. The good news is that as we become proficient in our chosen discipline we learn to handle the stress it generates. If we swerve out of our lane into another discipline we’ll take on stress that we’re not adjusted to or able to easily process.

The solution to staying effective as a caregiver is to stop trying to fix everything.