How are you responding to 2020’s twists and turns?

A key message currently coming through from my coaching clients is that a significant amount of fear is influencing people’s current behaviour as a reaction to current challenging world events.

But what is fear and how can we stop it from controlling us?

Start by reframing your perspective on fear

Fear is what we make of it and it doesn’t have to stop us in our tracks if we don’t let it. Former Wales football Manager, Chris Coleman, summed up how to deal with fear nicely:

“What is fear? Fear to me is put into people from outside influences and you spend so much time concentrating on what you don’t want to happen, rather than on exactly what you want to - believe in it and go and do it. If mistakes come they come. The message to our players has been no fear, express yourselves, enjoy it…”

That got me thinking about a well-known truism: ‘people who react to the world are rarely in control of their careers, yet those who respond and adapt - create opportunities.’

So are you reacting or responding to 2020?

Reacting? Here’s how to overcome fear and thrive:

• Expand your existing comfort zone step by step - that’s where progress happens. The process of developing greater self-confidence is achieved only when you actually do rather than think about doing. When you experience something new, irrespective of whether you succeed or fail, you will grow from the experience.

The opportunity to learn from the experience will allow you to realise that you have achieved more than you previously thought. As children this is how we learnt to walk – lots of unsuccessful attempts first. It’s also how we continue to learn throughout life.

• Remind yourself of your career successes to date. Review your successful business contributions and write them down in a journal. This is effective for a number of reasons; firstly, it charts your progress and makes you feel good and secondly you are reminding yourself of how successful you have been.

It provides a permanent anchor and reference point to refer back to when new challenges occur.

• Identify feelings of confidence you have previously experienced and bring those feelings back to assist you in a challenging situation. Ask yourself what you saw when you felt confident, what did you hear, and what did you say to yourself?

So that when you are lacking confidence, you can remind yourself of (and visualise) the experiences you felt at a time when you were confident.

When you begin to feel your confidence returning - and it will - keep using these tools and you’ll begin to find yourself thriving again - no matter what your post pandemic world looks like.

Do you need help to define your post pandemic strategy and to grow into an even more successful career? Email me at [email protected] to discuss how I can help get you there.