Can you manage all of the crises you make? There is a massive competition for our mental energy these days. Mental energy levels can cause strain on the emotions. Certain punishing emotions that keep you stuck, like Anxiety, Guilty Conscience, and Perfectionism, can be great motivators, too. Let’s say that what pushes you to perform better keeps you shooting for the extraordinary and holds a second chance for you. Instead of just getting “it” done, a certain personal awareness of the way you handle a crisis can create a personal shift in your desired direction.
Perfectionism, for instance, can commonly be a punishing emotion, leaving you at a loss for perspective on what already is good enough. Your self-talk that was designed to be motivating can actually be sabotaging you unconsciously. Being perfect is often mistaken to be the key to accomplishment. Guilt is an especially punishing trick, oftentimes totally undeserved and based on the actuality that you’ve made too many commitments to keep track of in the first place. Anxiety is the perpetual buzz under your feet that signals to your brain and nervous system that something according to your goal is out of place, or out of control.
Over-committing to things without the impulse to pause kicking in is probably one reason why it is so difficult to get anything done to completion, and if quality suffers, you suffer. So, how do you break through the waste of time the ensuing crisis brings? The first step is to ask yourself that question while checking in with how you truly feel. Take heart, though. The more you are honestly aware of what goes on internally and how it is affecting you externally can balance not only your perspective, but feeds into your unique way of accomplishing that very logic itself, for a long time to come.
Here are three questions you can ask yourself to bring about your breakthrough:
- To handle my perfectionism, can I stop and look and say I have done one thing of quality that I can be proud of? Can I then have the confidence that I can continue in that way and succeed without being overly self-critical along the way?
- To handle my guilt, how do I judge myself as being a procrastinator? Is my conscience so overburdened that I assume I must take more and more on because I deserve to sweat just because I took a break?
- To handle my anxiety, could I be already over-committed and striving to do the impossible without even realizing it? Am I already inside a situation that is disorganized to begin with?
If any of these questions spark answers for you, or you need a little more help answering them, here are some suggestions. First, take cues from your environment. Are you freaking out and feeling behind, but when you look around the office, your coworkers seem more relaxed? Maybe they are or maybe they are not, but seeing how this comparison can ground you, it can encourage you not to worry.
Be aware of when you tell yourself not to feel. Power lies in this one. The good thing about those who can tune into their discomfort is that they can turn around and be powerful agents of change. Lastly, practice self-empathy. You can take inventory of everything you are going through at any time you need to. Self-empathy with an honest inventory of yourself can help you. Consider an empathic approach to handle and mitigate how crisis has been happening with a compassionate inventory:
A Self-Empathy Way of Taking Inventory
Looking back:
- What task took the most time today?
- How can I improve tomorrow?
- What are my special wishes on how to spend my time?
- I have a hard time making the decision to eliminate the distractions.
- I want to work toward that….
- What would it take to discover, reach, plan, and implement my true calling?
- What tasks can I delegate today?
- When I’m stuck on a task and frustrated, I can try setting it aside until later and focus my mind elsewhere for a while.
- When do I focus best? What would I like more time for?
- Where do I see the greatest results of my actions? When do I lose steam?
- What do I avoid?
- What would simplicity do for me?
Empathy is Poetry 