You might have an MBA from Wharton and a law degree from Harvard, but if you are a stress case your peers and colleagues will not notice your credentials; they’ll only notice your stressed-out behavior.
A stressed-out leader will contaminate the emotional wellbeing of those around them. Frantic people make other people frantic.Become Cognizant. Listen to your inner voice. How is it talking to you? Would you tolerate it if a friend talked to you in the same way? Pay close attention to your exact words and write them down. You’ll begin to see how the voice in your head contributes to stress.
While it may seem like you do not have control over your thoughts, actually the opposite is true: you do. And in each moment when you hear negativity in your head you have the opportunity to halt it and switch to something that feels good. There’s no question life throws unfair curveballs our way. You don’t have to like them, but you also don’t have to dwell on them either.
We all write scripts for ourselves for how we will respond in certain situations. Rather than write yourself as the character that gets killed in the first act, write yourself as the hero who thinks outside of the box and keeps the negative self-talk at bay. The choice is yours.