Take a minute

Today started off with a bang. I was calmly reading through emails when they started rolling in. 1, then 2, then 3, and finally a 4th high priority email in a row. I was excited to see where this was going to lead.

Pretty much, there were some major changes we needed to make and it needed to happen quickly. I pinged my coworker and together we shared a virtual moan at the rework that was about to instill.

She told me she was just going to tell them no. They can’t make the changes for at least a week. She was all sorts of frustrated, and rightfully so.

While I agreed with her in principle, I’ve also been around long enough to know that at the end of the day, we will do whatever they say so just saying no was not going to get us anywhere productive.

I called her on the phone and asked her why. Why a week? Why not now?

She gave very valid reasons why we should wait. I told her a better approach might be to communicate what is at stake if we make the change now. To just focus on giving leadership all of the facts and let them make the decision since they are the ones that have to answer to it either way. We laughed about the change happening (again) and jump on the phone with leadership.

She calmly stated what was at risk by making the change now, but sincerely was onboard with whatever they decided. And guess what, they went with her recommendation.

The fact was leadership said we needed to make changes. It was not good or bad. Just a fact. She had all kinds of thoughts about it that felt justified, but when she stoped and took a minute to decide how she wanted to approach this, she decided to drop the drama and move forward.

Taking a minute to step back, and purposefully decide what you want to think about any situation is crucial. Who you are at work all comes form your feelings and only you can make yourself feel anything based on what you’re thinking.

So take back control of those thoughts that want to run wild and show you brain who’s the boss.

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