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If you had told me ten years ago that I would be teaching globally about mental mindset, I would have thought you were crazy. I came from the corporate world focused on business development, and most of the emphasis was on working hard. The belief was the harder (and more) you worked, the more success you would have. Interestingly, research shows that mindset is at least 90% of your success (or failure), not how hard you work.
The pandemic has changed our world. Michelle Obama recently shared how she felt “low-level depression” due to current events. Once she shared this information, it permitted other public figures to do the same. Many came forward describing feelings of being blue, negativity, lack of energy, fatigue, sleeplessness, over/under-eating, anxiety and other emotions.
You’ve probably heard of PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Authorities have reported that the social upheaval and anxiety caused by the pandemic is experienced as trauma. That means it is normal to have all sorts of feelings, such as sadness, anger, disappointment, frustration, overwhelm, and fear. Some days you might be feeling great, and the next, you might find yourself crying or angering quickly. These emotions are all normal for what we are currently experiencing. The key is to acknowledge and work through them but not stay stuck in their negativity.
A core strategy I teach is to find opportunity in challenges. Recent research has statistics on this very subject. Experts call it “Post Traumatic Growth” (PTG). According to psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun (who coined the term), we are more likely to experience growth (60-90%) after living through a trauma than staying stuck in a traumatic mindset. That gives all of us hope to know that the percentages are with us!
I like to help my clients take it one step further and start incorporating being “grounded.” Like one of our beautiful New England trees whose roots are deep and strong, the tree stands resilient against wind or ice storms, disease or drought, fire or flood. It might lose some branches, but its core remains intact. Translated to you and me, it means no matter what happens, no matter what our job title is, no matter how much we have in our bank account, no matter the state of current events, we are planted firmly in the ground and know that circumstances outside of our control can never take our value away.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ~ Albert Einstein.
Studies have shown that 70% of what we did yesterday will be the same action we take today and tomorrow. Studies have also shown that 70% of our thoughts will be the same thoughts we had yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That’s one of the big reasons that change can be difficult.
In order to get the results we want, we need to respond rather than react. When you learn to respond, you take back your power, whereas reacting keeps you in “victim mode.”
I have found a winning combination of proven strategies and successful mindset techniques (which include neuroscience) to help my clients move forward into a place of power and experience a healthier mindset.
Here are a few actions to help you get started:
The bottom line is to choose activities that resonate with you. I could give you many more proven strategies, but I want to set you up to succeed by starting you off slowly. If you are already doing these, I recommend increasing your activity level because you are depleting yourself at a much higher rate in today’s pandemic environment than before. I’ve needed to quadruple my daily routine due to the work I do.
If you’re a manager, you want to encourage your team to take good care of themselves. A reminder from my flight attendant days: if we don’t make putting on our oxygen mask a priority, we will likely not be able to help anyone including ourselves. The better people take care of themselves, the more they have to give back to your company. You’ll find your team to be more productive, focused, creative, happier and results-driven than if they feel fatigued and stressed out. You can only have one emotion at a time, so if your team member feels stressed, he/she can’t be creative. Vote for creativity every time!
There’s an important warning for you to heed before you go. You may have success during the pandemic. That’s great! But you might start to feel guilty if you see your friends or family members struggling and then subconsciously think that you don’t deserve your good fortune. Take a breath. Your gain has nothing to do with someone else’s loss. There is more than enough for all of us, and your feeling guilty and not wanting this success won’t help anyone. Be proud of what you have accomplished, and encourage others to go for their accolades.
I’ve been telling people that you can’t choose to opt-in or opt-out of the pandemic. It is what it is. You can choose how you experience it. Choose you.
Our guest blogs are written and produced by organizations within our membership. They are not necessarily intended to reflect the views nor opinions of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
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