4 Tips to Answer Anxiety
Anxiety is a small fire in a pile of dry kindling. It feeds on itself.
Anxiety means you care about results. It’s normal to feel anxious when skills are unproven, environments are unstable, and failure has consequences.
You’re oblivious if failure matters and you never feel anxious.
Anxiety never quietly goes away on its own.
Anxiety is:
- Attaching identity to results.
- Needing to NOT change.
- Expecting certainty but feeling disbelief.
- Turning inward instead of acting forward.
- Fearing inadequacy.
- Dreading imaginary devils.
- Living in the future instead of the present.
4 tips to answer anxiety:
Fighting anxiety creates more anxiety. The best you can do is answer anxiety.
#1. Vitality
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Vince Lombardi
Fatigue:
- Amplifies the bad and magnifies obstacles.
- Creates imagined problems.
- Feels inadequate.
- Drains resolve.
- Destroys creativity.
- Loves to blame.
- Looks for reasons to quit.
Anxiety is defeated by forward-facing vitality. Focus on building vitality when the demon of anxiety creeps in.
#2. Action
Action answers anxiety. Fear feeds on inaction.
The best answer to anxiety is taking the next best step. You might not be certain. Just be reasonably confident you won’t make matters worse.
You cannot simply think your way into confidence.
Emotion follows action.
Anxious actions multiply anxiety.
Confident actions create confidence.
Put a big smile on your face and you will feel happier, for example.
#3. Interpretation
Emotions can’t tell the truth from a lie. At the movies you feel afraid when you watch a scary movie. It’s not real.
Interpret problems as opportunity. Problems are intruders. Opportunities are something you seize.
#4. People
The people around you either strengthen your heart or weaken your knees.
Anxiety is contagious. Surround yourself with courageous people.
You answer anxiety by stepping into it, not by waiting for it to go away.
How might leaders answer anxiety?
Authors note: This post is not written to anxiety disorder.
Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress
“The best answer to anxiety is taking the next best step.”
For me, this first point has the most impact. I have found that taking confident action to solve one problem, then the next, and so on, prevents getting bogged down in anxiety and, sometimes, hopelessness.
I like the “failure is not an option” approach of the NASA engineers who figured out how to bring back the Apollo 13 crew, or the determination of the fictional botanist in “The Martian” who doggedly worked through one problem after another to help save himself.
Inaction is a choice, and usually the wrong one.
Thanks Jim. I suppose some issues go away on their own. But inaction usually makes matters worse. Issues don’t resolve themselves; they get worse over time.
“The people around you either strengthen your heart or weaken your knees”. This is terrific: bravery requires engagement with others whose courage you admire. Thanks again for a great inspirational piece, Dan!
Thanks Amy. Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are becoming. The friend of cowards becomes a coward. I suppose this isn’t a law like the law of gravity. But if I was a wagering person and you hung out with cowards, I’d expect you to feel the same way. Cheers
Take it from a diagnosed anxiety struggler, this is good advice for dealing with it at work. Thanks, Dan!
If you’re hung up at “Best,” Dan makes it clear in the explanation, “You might not be certain. Just be reasonably confident you won’t make matters worse.” You can reword the call to action as “Next good step” or “Strong next step.”
You might even try, “Let’s see if we can fail differently this time.”
Brilliant suggestion, Robert! Thank you.
Useful tips to control anxiety. Nowadays regardless of whether children or adults everyone is facing anxiety problem. It differs based on the age, situation, place of environment. mostly children are facing anxiety problem than adults. So, it is important to parents aware about taking anxiety controlling actions in children. i also know about this after reading the article written by child doctor.
Source : https://drgowri.in/anxiety-in-children/