As your food for thought for this week, here’s a Life Lessons excerpt from my September Career Ezine, Creating Your Own Path. To check out previous issues and sign up for my monthly career newsletter click here.
On a Personal Note
Thanks for all of your well wishes on my pregnancy! Things are going well. I am definitely larger, which is part of the deal of course (grin) but it feels very strange to me. Because I am a small person, any extra weight feels like a big change. According to friends and family I am not that much larger but there are days when I feel as big as a house. I think the people at the pool where I’ve started swimming are wondering when I’m going to stop squeezing myself into my old bathing suit! Here comes that pregnant lady again. Gaining weight is taking some getting used to, but has not diminished my overall excitement about becoming a mom. (Guess I have to start getting used to that word ;-)
Life Lessons
A few weeks ago, I started worrying about some things that were going on in my life. No matter how hard I tried, my thoughts kept returning to the situation. Then, in a conversation with my coach, she made a comment that, serendipitously, I had just read earlier that day. She said,
"It’s not the situation, it’s how you react to it."
As soon as she said this, I realized I had two choices: (1) I could continue to worry about my situation, or (2) I could shift my focus and do something about it.
Here’s the deal: We all know we can’t always control what happens to us, and we certainly cannot control other people. But we can control one thing – how we react to a situation.
Try this: Think of one thing that occurred recently that bothered or frustrated you. How did you react to it? If your reaction was not positive or beneficial to you, how could you have responded differently?
For example, say a co-worker made you angry and you blew up at her. Instead of becoming instantly angry, you could have temporarily removed yourself from the situation, taken a few deep breaths to relax, and then returned to discuss the situation in a calmer frame of mind. Take it a step further and you could have discussed how the two of you could avoid this kind of issue in the future through clearer communication or more realistic expectations.
By simply changing your reaction, you can often turn a difficult situation into an opportunity to improve future communication and work-flow.
Hallie,
Let me help you with your career search!
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