Author: cbarney.45

Never mistake busyness for productivity.

Yesterday, I wrote about how taking action cures anxiety. Doing something – anything – can take your mind off of what MIGHT happen. And, honestly, it can feel pretty good.

But have you ever sat down after a long, busy day at work and realize that you didn’t accomplish anything you set out to for the day? Or, even worse, do you not even know what tasks are really the important ones you need to complete?

Never mistake motion for action. Never mistake busyness for productivity.

Being busy can feel good, but it’s often an illusion. Focus on checking less things off of your To Do list and instead, check things off your priority list. Ask yourself, “if I could only get one thing done today, what would I choose to do in order to feel the most accomplished (or least stressed)?”

When you wake up each morning (or before you go to bed at night), plan your day out. Set out to do the most important tasks first, especially if they’re difficult. As Brian Tracy says, “Eat that frog.” If you must eat the frog anyways, you might as well get it out of the way and not let the thought of eating the frog chip away at you all day.

Do your most important tasks first, and if you have two equally important tasks, choose to finish the most difficult one first.

Taking action to reduce anxiety

Action cures anxiety. Sitting around doing nothing but thinking about what might go wrong produces anxiety. A lot of times, the possibility of what might happen is actually worse than what does happen.

The best way to improve your situation is to do what you can. Affect the things that you can control, but don’t worry about the things that you cannot. Those things will happen one way or another and there’s nothing you can do about that. And that’s OK.

When you’re feeling lost or stuck, get moving. Take action. If it is productive action, it may move you closer to your goals. But even if it is not directly productive, it may still alleviate any anxiety you have just by distracting you.

Go with the flow. Be flexible.

You have to be flexible in life. If you’re too rigid, you’re more likely to break. If you’re pliable, you can bend without breaking. The wind can push you over, but it won’t break you. If you’re too stiff and can’t go with the flow, you’ll snap in half during the storm.

Practice going with the flow. This can be tough if you’re a planner and want things to go a certain way. But you have to realize that there are many things outside of our control. And if we don’t leave right on time, if we’re not eating the “perfect meal,” or getting exactly the right amount of sleep, it’s ok. Everything will be ok. We will survive. Our children will survive. One bad day or bad week isn’t going to ruin our health.

Go with the flow before you stress yourself out (and those around you) too much. Because if you’re too rigid, life will feel much harder than it needs to.

Power

We want to power not so we can abuse it, but to make sure that we are never taken advantage of. But there are different types of power. For example, being wealthy is powerful. If you are independently wealthy and not financially reliant on your W-2 income, if you feel like you are mistreated or if you just don’t like your job you can leave it for something else.

Other types of power include strength (physical and mental), intelligence, and influence.

If you physical strength or if you know how to defend yourself, you have power. People will think twice about messing with you before selecting an easier target.

If you have mental strength, you have power. Others will not be able to manipulate your emotions if you know how to keep them in check.

If you have intelligence, you have power. You will be able to detect when someone is lying or trying to mislead you. You can use your intuition and what you already have a base knowledge of to figure out if something makes sense.

If you have influence (such as a huge social media following, but even with your friends or family), you have power. Your words can affect how people think, what they say/do, how they vote, etc.

Once again, it’s not that we want this power to hold over someone else. It’s actually the complete opposite. We want to have the power so that others can’t exercise that power on us.

How are you increasing your power today?