Tag Archives: little voice

Sintonízate.

tune inEmpezando ahora mismo, te invito a que por una semana manejes al trabajo con el radio apagado, hagas ejercicio sin iPod, y te acuestes a dormir con el televisor apagado.  Mas que buscar reducir la polución de ruido, busco reducir tus estímulos externos y así ayudarte a sintonizarte a tu vocecita interna.  A que escuches y entiendas esa conversación constante que llevas en tu cabeza.

Y si eso de ponerte en contacto con tu vocecita interna te huele a incienso – y te parece que es solo para los alternativos – considera lo siguiente: 

  1. Escuchando el contenido de esa conversación interna, prestando atención al tono que usas y a la intención de lo que dices, lograras entender la causa de tus acciones.  Y esto te dará poder para cambiar aquellos comportamientos que no te favorecen y a repetir aquellos que si.
  2. Prestando atención a tu dialogo interno lograras identificar que te lleva a espichar el gatillo y reaccionar explosivamente ante ciertas situaciones.  ¿Por qué, por ejemplo, hay veces que sientes rabia cuando tu jefe te pide un favor y otras veces la ayudas con gusto? 
  3. Familiarizándote con tu vocecita, entenderás que más que la perfección, es la búsqueda de la excelencia lo que te llevara a alcanzar tus metas.  ¿Por qué, por ejemplo, antes de tomar una decisión en tu trabajo sobre analizas tanto la situación que terminas paralizada en inacción?  ¿Estas buscando alcanzar resultados o evitar el fracaso? 
  4. Entendiendo tu dialogo interno sabrás porque evades por completo ciertas tareas en tu trabajo, otras las dejas para ultimo momento, y sin embargo hay otras que asumes con gusto y casi de inmediato.    

Ahora si, ¿te le mides a un poco mas de silencio?

 

Gracias por la foto Cafe Central.

Find cause, will break cycle

Have you noticed how there are certain emotions that you continue to expereince during your day-to-day at work?  Like for example, every time you hear the phone ring first thing in the morning as you`re settling in to your work station, you feel dread.  Each time an email bounces, you feel frustrated.  And each time a paper crams in the printer, you feel your face heat up in anger.

                     

Like Pavlov`s dogs, whenever `this` happens, you feel `this` emotion.

Day in and day out, you feel the same emotions, as if they were being fed to you on a conveyor belt. Days, months, years – and a life time goes by – while you experience the same emotional routine, the same song & dance.

 

Surely there`s a way to end the (emotional) ground-hog day.  Surely.

 

So how do you break the cycle? As I found out, it`s a matter of digging deep into your little voice.  Doing so may not be easy, but it is possible.

 

First, some back ground.  What you experience, or how you behave and react to a situation is directly related to what you think about the situation. Trouble is, our brains produce thoughts at a speed that makes it hard for us to single them out and examine them.  In other words, our brain does not produce a thought at snail pace – then gives us time to analyze it before it hits us with the next one.  Rather our active brains, tend to be hyperactive.  It`s the speed at which thoughts are produced that makes it hard for us to single out a single thought. Even so, it is possible to do.

 

Next time you feel angry, in the midst of your tantrum, with your face feeling hot, try to tune into to your little voice.  Ask yourself: “What am I thinking right now?”  Dig deeper.  Ask yourself: “What exactly am I thinking about this situation?”  Go even deeper.  Ask yourself: “What is at the core of this situation? What really is bothering me?”

 

It was taking time to tune into my thoughts (face feeling hot and all) that I discovered the cause of an anger routine that has been repeating itself for years in my life.   Now I know that whenever something small goes wrong at work – like a paper jams inside the printer or  an email bounces – I feel frustrated because deep down inside (yes, you gotta go deep), I dread solving the problem.  Aha!

In the case of a paper jam, deep down inside I dread walking to the printer (which in my last job was all of 20 paces away, and took 3 seconds), opening it up (5 seconds), and removing the paper from the tray (20 seconds, tops).  After doing the math, I realized that quite often I was spending much longer feeling angry than what it took me to solve the problem!  Ironic, wouldn’t you say?

 

It was going through this process that I finally understood that anger, frustration, dread and anxiety do not solve a thing. Not a single thing.  Rather, these negative emotions take up real-estate in my brain, and suck energy and time away from me. All resources I could use towards solving the situation that made me angry, frustrated, anxious in the first place.

 

What can you do right now to change your emotional song & dance?  How deep are you willing to go?