In these crazy times of overwhelming challenges and abundant changes, many of us feel our heads are spinning with everything we need to understand and process. Understandable. Completely understandable. Some of my clients are telling me that they are having difficulty being consistent from day to day. Some of them are confiding in me, that most days they’re doing a great job of staying busy and investing their energy in working on what’s most important, but not all days. Some of my clients report that they’re struggling to motivate themselves on certain days. Again, perfectly understandable given the turmoil and disruption that is going on, and the noise that we’re dealing with from our media talking heads and from our governmental officials…

What can you do to turn down the noise and get focused on motivating yourself in these challenging moments? I cannot promise that I have the answer for you, but these techniques have been helpful for me and for a number of my clients. I truly hope that you find them useful…

Give Limitations The Sidestep

Often our minds focus on something that looks like it will constrain our options or hem us in. Yes, that may be a limitation, but then again, perhaps if we look at it differently, the limitation could become an opportunity to change the game, and take our energy and our engagement to a whole new level. Change your thinking from constraints and limitations, then replace those negative thoughts by reframing the situation in your mind in a positive light. Ask yourself what you’d need to do if you wanted to create an opportunity from what may appear to be an obstacle. Armed with this change in perspective, we can often see alternatives that we couldn’t see when we had a closed mindset focused on obstacles and limits. Don’t let the obstacle stop you. Will yourself to sidestep it and create a new perspective that allows you to see that while your car might be out of gas, and you might not have the money to purchase gas at the moment, your bicycle will allow you to ride to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription.

Address Your Habits

Procrastination is a curse that plagues many of us. We tend to avoid the difficult task that we don’t like to work on and instead spend our available time on things like straightening up the kitchen, or cleaning out our email inbox, instead of working on those TPS reports (shameless Office Space reference). When you recognize your habitual patterns of thinking and your typical emotional reactions to stress and deadlines, you can choose to overcome the negative habits and set anchor in a new spot, where those habits are replaced with new more positive reactions to work-related stress. When you feel the pressure coming on, remind yourself of how often in the past you’ve let procrastination prevent you from getting your work done on time. Make up your mind that you’re going to create a new, positive habit that will lead to recurring success. Choose to follow Brian Tracy’s great advice and “Eat The Frog” early in the morning. Get that stress-inducing task done so that you can feel the rush of accomplishment that goes along with completing your TPS reports for Lumbergh (another shameless Office Space reference). With the most stressful task accomplished, the rest of your day will be smooth sailing and you’ll continue to be productive. An object in motion – stays in motion!

Get Chemistry Working For You 

Our bodies produce some amazing chemicals when things are going well. Research indicates that we can become pretty focused and full of energy when our body is producing an abundance of dopamine and noradrenaline. By consistently choosing positivity and embracing happiness as a way of living and working, we often find contentment in what we’re doing and this, in turn, drives our body to adjust and produce these two wonder drugs more regularly. You can, of course, choose to wallow in your stress and your misery, and continue to let procrastination kick you in the pants day in and day out if you like. On the other hand, you can also choose to embrace a bit of resilience and mental toughness! Force yourself to stop making excuses and playing your victim card. When you demand more from yourself and begin to start immediately on the difficult work (Brian Tracy’s “Frog”, if you will) you quickly find out that you CAN do it. It often doesn’t take nearly as much time, energy, and/or effort as your procrastinating assumptions led you to assume. If you make “Eating The Frog” early in the day as your new best practice, it will quickly become a very positive habit.

Talk Back, What Do You Think?

What do you think? Do you struggle with work-related stress and negative habits? Do you procrastinate often enough that it is really starting to bug you? Are you sick and tired of feeling like you’re not getting done the things that you committed to and know you should be getting done? If so, then take the three steps outlined above, and let me know how it goes for you. I’m willing to bet that you will learn, as many others have, that if you change your thinking to the positive, you can change your life and your career trajectory forever. I’m willing to suggest that by changing your habits from the negative to the positive, you can get rid of a lot of the stress that brings out the crazy in you. I’m willing to gamble that you can train your body to reward you for your disciplined choices by producing more dopamine and noradrenaline, leading you to have more energy and feeling much more in control and confident every day. Here’s wishing you a successful transformation!

Get Help From An Experienced Coach

Michael is an award-winning Executive Development Coach and Business Advisor. Michael founded Michael Beach Coaching & Consulting, a firm that provides coaching and consulting services to fast-growth companies all over the United States. MBCC’s coaches work regularly helping C-Suite Executives, their Leadership Teams, and their Emerging Leaders to take their leadership skills and their “game” to a whole new level, working on things like Emotional Intelligence, Executive Presence, Communication Mastery, Conflict Resolution, Operational Excellence, and many other business and leadership disciplines. During the months of May and June, MBCC is offering you a limited number of no-cost, no-obligation two-hour discovery consultations, where one of Michael’s coaches will engage with you to determine strategies to help you with your leadership challenges or strategies to help your organization to solve some of its most pressing issues. If you’re interested in setting up a free discovery consultation and seeing how powerful coaching could be for you, contact Michael at info@michaelbeachcoach.com.