Do you ever walk into the office, thinking – today is going to be awful, I simply don’t have enough time to achieve what I want to achieve?
I expect most of us at some point have thought along those lines.
Have you ever stopped to consider the impact of how those morning thoughts will impact your day? If you believe from the start of the day that you are going to fail, how will the day ever be a positive experience?
The Power of Positive thought…
A few years ago I decided a to run a marathon. I was not a runner, it was a habit I started after having twins when I was trying, like most new mothers, to shift some baby weight.
I could run about four miles without dying when I signed up to the London Marathon.
If you are questioning where I am going with this, let me explain….
When I signed up to run a marathon, with no previous long distance running experience behind me, I didn’t start my training saying I was never going to be able to run 26.2 miles nonstop.
In fact I did just the opposite. I declared loud and proud to anyone who could hear me that I was going to train to run a marathon in 16 weeks. I said it so often I believed it myself. I rearranged life to be able to suit the demanding training schedule, and after a gruelling four month training plan I ran my first marathon.
(If you wondered it took 4 hours and 16 minutes…)
The Point?
Would I have achieved my goal if I had started my training thinking it was impossible to achieve that level of fitness in 16 weeks?
Probably not….
So why apply negative thought to your working day?
True, if you simply smile and declare everything is going to be ok when clearly the demands of the day are impossible to fit into a normal working day, then the outcome may be the same. However, if you apply the theory of positivism and employ delegating and ditching skills, the result may be far happier.
Are you a victim?
Are you the person in the office who is always running out of time? the person who has too much to do? or the person who cannot believe it is lunch time already?
Do you start the day thinking you will be chained to the desk long after 8 pm; do you start the day depressed by all you have to do?
Then it is time to change your language…
Changing your words can make a great impact. Changing your goals to then meet these expectations creates a more realistic challenge for the day ahead. If you start each day with too much on your plate, perhaps it is time to seek out your manager to discuss how your workload can be delegated.
However, saying you have too much work, is very different to asking for guidance on how to delegate some responsibility because you really want to achieve your most important tasks.
The power of using positive language will win every time.
Start the day with a clear to do list, a positive frame of mind, and tell yourself you will succeed.
Don’t be the victim running out of time, starting each day dreading the next.
Good luck….