Today, during practice 17 with the team of 6, we learned a bit more about anxious thoughts and where they tend to go when unrestrained. Anxious thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” “I’m not sure how to get out of this mess,” or countless other thoughts that your fear based brain thinks up the moment some kinda adversity strikes, lead most humans to ruminate, panic, or become paralyzed. None of those thoughts lead the anxious mind toward performing.
Ruminating about the thought that “I’m not good enough,” leads us to further believe that we’re NOT. Continuing to think about why we feel this way and becoming more anxious by the second doesn’t help get us out of own way. “Oh shit,” becomes Oh,shit, oh, shit, oh, shit.”
Becoming paralyzed and frozen in place doesn’t help us to “unstuck” ourselves from the prison of our mind either. Paralyisis might keep the mastadon from having us for lunch but it won’t help us find the way out of this modern mess we’re in. Paralysis will simply leave us with the thoughts we have. Frozen in place we’ll remain. “Oh shit,” becomes “Oh shit.”
Panic may send blood to our extremeties and prepare us to run like a banchee until our heart explodes. Panic may cause us to jump out the window and ensure a sudden death. Panic performances are not sustainable and come at a high cost to ourselves; oftentimes a really high cost. “Oh shit,” becomes “HOLY SHIT!!”
Most panic attacks, most anxiety, most hyper-stress is simply our mind holding onto irrational, negative, and catastrophized thoughts. The untrained mind does this naturally thinking that it’s doing you a favor. It’s not. Do yourself one and change your default, fear based mind. The key is to practice a new kinda catch and release program. Check this recipe out next time you find yourself feeding your anxious thoughts. Give ’em these 3R’s..
Recognize. Recognize your irrational thinking. You’ve got to catch your thinking before you can change. A great way to catch your irrational thinking is to tune into how you feel the second you notice yourself start to sweat, breathe a bit more shallow, or hear the little drunk in your head waking up.
Release. Once you’ve slowed yourself down and taken a few deep breathes, go back to your mind and release the irrational thoughts. Tell your mind that you haven’t got any evidence to support their crazy accusations. Case closed. Release the thoughts, don’t feed them. Do NOT ruminate; release.
Replace. Now that you’re calmed down and ready to move forward with some kinda PA, replace the irrational thoughts with some good, old fashioned rational ones. Recite a few FACTS about the situation and the way forward. Focus on the FACTS.
High performers teach their minds how to productively think when anxiety, time pressures, and any other kinda distressors show their ugly head. These high performers know that PA is the only way forward. And, they know that you cannot act productively when your paralyzed, paniced, or ruminating your way ’round.
Recognize. Release. Replace. Practice applying the 3R’s when you catch yourself beginning to go anxious on us. Recognize. Release. Replace. And, PA here you come. This is the way high performers are built. This is the catch and release program that you want.
Thanks for the reminder. You’re welcome…
BUILT TO LEAD 