My friend Rocco knows me well. He knows that I tend to make myself anxious, anticipating the tasks ahead, how long they will take, and what might go wrong. “What if this were easy?” he commonly asks.
In my Positive Intelligence training, we learned about selecting the path of ease and flow. The course taught us to approach things with positive energy, allowing it to pull us through the task rather than pushing ourselves forward out of fear and anxiety. Embracing this notion required effort from me, as my defaults are you’ve got to do the work, and if it’s easy, it’s probably not worthwhile.
Easy does it, Kristen.
You are taking action.
Hard work need not be an emotional strain.
This whole approach is a work in progress for me, but I have found a few techniques helpful.
Check State of Mind. I pause, breathe, and move into a positive or neutral emotional place. I’ll tell myself to “quiet the mind.”
One Task at a Time. I tend to get ahead of myself. Yesterday, I had an hour to complete a task. I literally thought to myself, “Well, if you move fast enough, you can move on to the next thing and get ahead of schedule so that eventually you can have all of the work done and take a rest. Wait. What?
Will this Matter in Six Months? Most things will not--especially not the video clip that I select for my presentation slide deck.
If all else fails, I think of Rocco looking over my shoulder. “What if this were easy?”