Drifting Away

Monday, March 24, 2008

How to Develop The Skill of Grace under Pressure?

When you find yourself in a stressful situation (i.e. a closing that is coming up, an especially important negotiation) you may discover that your normal cool is replaced with panic. With practice, you can learn to handle these situations with grace and poise. Here are some points to consider:

1. Step back and see the big picture. Almost invariably, when you find yourself losing your cool it is because you fail to see things in perspective. Look back 10 years from where you have come. See the progress you have made. View your present situation as just another stepping stone in your long term progression. Ask yourself where you are going to be in 10 years. The stress you feel in your present circumstances will diminish when viewed in this context.

2. Review your goals. Hannah More wrote, "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal." Keep your eyes on the goal and you won't have time to lose your cool.

3. Realise that stress is caused by fear. Fear is not a thing. It is just a thought. It cannot stop you. Only you can stop you. So get out of your own way. Quit thinking fear thoughts. Start thinking success thoughts.

4. Give yourself a pep talk with phrases like these: Inch by inch, anything is a cinch. No pain no gain. It's always darkest before the don. Who am I doing this for? My family. Is their long-term success more important to me than this momentary stress that seems to be holding me back? Yes. Is there any other way? No. Then do it.

5. Do it now. Develop the habit of doing what you need to do when the thought comes to you. Don't put it off. Your habit of procrastination is really just another camouflaged form of fear. You must face it. Do it now.

The ability to exude grace under pressure is the result of passing through many positive and negative experiences in which you finally see that you can handle whatever gets thrown to you. Things are rarely all or nothing, make or break, do or die. Regardless of the outcome, the sun still comes up in the morning. Life teaches that things are never as good as they seem or as bad as you imagine. Even the failures often turn out to be the best answer in the long run.

There are good things in bad situations and bad things in good situations. There are just as few reasons to be overly excited about something as there are to be overly despondent. Wisdom dictates that you learn to be more even-tempered. Moderation in all things and from this comes grace.

Taken from "The Challenge" by Robert G. Allen.

kAkA.hUnTeR

Common sense plus action equals power.

spoke at : 3/24/2008 04:42:00 PM

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