Do you know how to overcome the biggest internal POW of all?

Let’s start with a quick review. A POW is something internal or external that feels like a heavy blow. When you have too many internal POWs at work, you end up sentencing yourself in Professional Prison. Today we are focusing on what I have determined is the biggest internal POW of all. FEAR of the Unknown!

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes and when it comes to work a lot of unnecessary time and angst is dedicated to fear of the unknown. This all came to me in a clear-headed moment on the back of a very large horse named Marco.

My friends, “The Adventure Girls”, and I bought a Groupon® for horseback riding recently. It sounded tame enough – trail riding through bucolic fields and streams on friendly, easy-going horses. However, as the day approached, I found myself getting nervous about what might happen while we were riding. You see the last time I was on a horse was 27 years ago on my honeymoon in Jamaica.

To make a long story short, my horse ended up trotting away from the others and my helmet fell down over my face so I couldn’t see…oh you get the picture (and it’s not a pretty one). I was fine – just shaken – and swore I wouldn’t get on a horse again for many years.

The memories of this – and the accompanying fear of the unknown – kept me off of horses for a long time. Isn’t that ridiculous? I missed out on many opportunities for fun because of my unnecessary fear of the unknown.

Unfortunately, the same thing happens at work and this affects our ability to be satisfied, energized & productive. Someone volunteers for a project team and makes a mistake and then says, “I can’t do that again”. Or days before an important meeting, you start to worry about all the “what-ifs” that could happen.

So, here’s how to overcome the biggest internal POW of all. Stop worrying.

Ha – easier said than done, right? It doesn’t have to be! SHIFT that worry to a sense of calm knowing. Replace the stories you are telling yourself about impending doom with hopeful and helpful stories. After all, the “event” hasn’t happened yet, so who says it can’t have a happy ending?

Let’s say, your shift is starting and you’ve been assigned the “tough patient” on the unit. Instead of dreading the day, take a deep breath, harness your knee jerk reaction of worry and assume that the day will go swimmingly. With a child like curiosity, you begin to think; “I wonder what interesting things I’ll learn from this patient today?”

Or maybe you are in a leadership role and you need to have what you think will be a tough conversation with a team member about his performance. Instead of tossing and turning the night before, simply picture the meeting going well. When you start to feel the nagging worry, take a deep breath (or two or three) and picture the end of the meeting when you’ve agreed on next steps and the employee says “Thank you”.

The worse case scenario in both of these examples is that things do go badly and you have a rotten day, right? Well you’re just compounding the rottenness if you worry about it all in advance. The best-case scenario is that it all turns out to be nothing and you have a wonderful day at work.

Let fear of the unknown be one of your old friends. Let go of the worry and doubt – at least until you’ve proven to yourself that it’s really a valid fear. It worked for Marco and me. What fun we had – especially when he started trotting after the horse in front of me. What a giddy feeling! WOW!

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