Stress
Emotions are great; don’t get me wrong, I am the first to cry when I am mad, upset, hurt, or happy. But when you’re in a situation in which work needs to get done, put those emotions aside. Emotions can cloud your judgment and reduce productivity. We need to learn how to be more selective with our feelings.
I am not saying that we need to be heartless tin men and women, but when people are counting on you to get the job done then you need to boss up and put those emotions on the back burner. A go-getter understands the importance of having a laser focus in the workplace, gym, home life, school, etc. to get shit done.
When achieving goals, you have to block out distracting emotions to achieve and accomplish what you have set out to do. We must rewire our brain to focus less on feelings and more on productivity.
When you need to get your HUSTLE on, be driven by goals not emotions.
Let’s use the workplace as an example: When having one of those days, yes we all have those days at work that our emotions (sadness, mad, frustrated, excited, hurt) get the best of us. I want you to ask yourself: Are these feelings going to help get the task done? Will they distract me from completing my work? Sometimes our ego or pride can get in the way of getting the job done. The work scene is no place for pride and ego, instead it should be more about collaboration, productivity, efficiency, passion, and drive.
Take-a-way: If you go to work every day and you are always stressed out and full of emotions take a step back and reevaluate your job. Ask yourself questions like… Does my job bring me joy, passion, and fulfillment? Does my job bring me pain, stress, frustrations, and dullness? Now, I am not encouraging you to go find yourself a new job (unless that is want you really want, in that case, hell yeah go do it) but it may be time to find something that brings you joy and passion. Life is too short to go to work every day to a job that you hate. Do what you love with people you respect!
Emotions
Emotions can turn into stress… Too many emotions can blind us from learning valuable lessons in life and seeing opportunities that may pop up for you. If we are too busy stressing, crying, complaining, judging, and or being negative then you are not focused on how to be the best version of yourself. I believe in the struggle, I believe in the hurt, pain, and failures. I believe that there are lessons to learn when we are in these kinds of stressful sucky moments. Most people allow the stress and negativity to keep them down, but we must train our brain to use these emotions as fuel for our goals and dreams. Not learning anything from pain because you are too tied up with emotions is inefficient, mainly because life will always have tough shitty moments. When you do get hurt, use that hurt as body armor, and fuel; learn and grow from it. Just remember getting hurt today makes you stronger and tougher tomorrow. Make every struggle count…
Mindset
Emotions lead to overthinking. Overthinking leads to stress and anxiety. All that crap can lead to overeating, hurting others, and lack of self-love. Humans tend to over think and overcomplicate situations. There are so many examples of this situation, but since I used the work scene for the last example let’s stick with WORK:
The boss calls you on the phone and says “Karissa, we need to talk” I quickly answer, “Sure no problem, be up in a couple minutes.” You hang up the phone, and you instantly start to sweat and start to wonder why does my boss what to talk to me today? Your brain then starts to create ridiculous stories, stories like…You knew this job was to good to be true, why did you think things were going great, what did I do wrong, I knew I should have skipped my kids dance recital and stayed late to finished those reports… and before you know it, your body and mind are at a level 10 on the stress scale. (Let’s just say that a “10” would be like a lion chasing you, I’m talking high-level stress.)
At times like this, we need to take a step back and remember that you are a great employee and that the boss may just want to tell you “Great job, Karissa, keep up the awesome work.” In situations like this grab a pen and paper, count down from five and walk your happy butt upstairs.
Take-A-Way
Don’t overthink things, don’t stress out about situations that haven’t happened yet. These “moments” that we “freak out” about may never happen. (Trust me; most of these moments never end up happening. My husband is great at reminding me not to stress out about crap that hasn’t even happened yet, true story!)
So, why all this talk about stress and emotions? Well, let’s see… were humans, not robots and humans have a shit ton of stress and emotions. So, how can we start to re-wire our way of thinking and conquer our stress level?
Step #1 Step Back to evaluate the situation.
Step #2 Be mindful of how your body and mind feel and re-act under stress and pressure.
Step #3 Learn what your mind and body can do instead of allowing the stress to take over and run your life.
Rinse and repeat if needed, and if that doesn’t work, hire a personal coach like me to help you understand the effects of stress and how you can get a handle on your emotions.
