When faced with certain situations the adrenaline starts pumping filling us with a feeling of “Let’s do this”. Other times the adrenaline is still pumping out into our bodies but our brain is looking for ways out.
Be it a tight deadline, a big challenge or task, or something we’re afraid or nervous about, when it comes down to it and we give it a go we have so much more in us than what we would have thought or previously known. Pushing ourselves to do what we don’t want to do because we’re slightly nervous about it is good. Depending on the situation preparing in advance can help but even if we don’t we shouldn’t let the nervousness be a hinder stopping us from doing it, or at least giving it a go.
I was nervous about not finding the way up to Bedfordshire on Monday, being late and missing our appointment and about stalling when I came to crossings or having to stop. Had I not been in Sweden last weekend I’d probably taken the car out for a drive and practiced so that I felt less nervous about it. But I couldn’t and instead I focused on familiarising myself with the journey there by breaking it down and looking at the key mile stones on the map, like roundabouts and exits.
Breaking down a task to smaller and more manageable bits is a simple way to make the things that we are nervous about seem smaller and less scary. Taking it step by step and focusing on the current task at hand rather than the big thing that we need to have accomplished by the end of it, or the “what ifs” that could go wrong, can make it easier. It worked with my drive up to Bedfordshire and has worked plenty of times before in work related situation. Like that night during last summer when I worked 22 hours in one go and went straight to the airport, flew to Geneva and presented and then back. Had I that morning at the start of the 22 hours focused on everything that I had to get done, or that I might have to work the night, I would have muddled the water and had problems knowing where to start. You can only do one thing at the time in any given moment and that day and night I made time and tasks pass without me feeling the effects of the hours piling up by breaking everything down into small chunks. Not only did it fill me with a sense of progression but also a boosts every time I ticked a new item of my list. And all those smaller tasks were far easier to grasp and handle than the big “having-to-do-everything-before-the-morning”.
Tomorrow – Day 313 | Tackling guilt & explaining your priorities
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/rodolfonovak/251335818
