This blog is always about finding positives with the negatives and I had plenty of negatives this week. On Monday, I really struggled to get started on a difficult piece of work. I didn’t have any ideas, I didn’t know where to start, so of course, I procrastinated and found a hundred other things to do instead. I knew I was wrong not to get started, so I became frustrated and then angry with myself. I got caught in a negative cycle of behaviour and self-criticism.
Ironically the work I was struggling to create was the article and presentation for my resilience webinar this week. Resilience is about overcoming obstacles and keeping going despite setbacks.
What gave me the ability to keep going was a comment from my closest colleague, who called out what was happening. She said very clearly you are giving up. You need to stop, you need to find one task to do, do it, and then do the next task. She told me I needed to apply resilience to my situation, and in doing so, I would have an authentic story to tell about finding resilience when I deliver the webinar.
She showed me a positive outcome of the stress I was experiencing. She told me my struggles could be used to apply the points I wanted to make about how we build our own resilience and how we build resilience in others – which is exactly what she was doing for me.
This is a classic example of why I write this blog, to give us examples not just of how we can find the positives in any negative situation but how important collaboration and the support of others is in doing this. I want you to use this blog to find ideas for how you can support others when they are struggling.
At meetings today, listen to your colleagues for signs of stress. Ask them if they are struggling to progress things at the rate they need to, and take a few minutes to listen and find something good that you can identify in their situation that they can build upon. The more they focus on the good, the more energy they will have for completing their work so that they can experience the motivation of achievement.
