At the end of the day, have you ever felt like you had been spinning your
wheels, working hard yet not making any progress? Your responsibilities may
take up a lot of your time and attention, leading to missed opportunities and
unmet goals. To stay on track and be successful in reaching your objectives, there are some key strategies you can use.
Start by laying the groundwork. Act – small steps at first – and celebrate each success along the way. Be brave enough to tackle whatever comes up and make those changes count. Once you start taking charge, new pathways will open for connecting with what matters most.
The S.P.E approach can be an invaluable resource for staying on track and achieving success:
Step back: Take a few moments to evaluate your current situation and direct yourself towards tasks that will help you get back on track. Regulating your emotions, posture, and breathing rate are all necessary components.
Prioritize: Identify which activities require the most attention from you right now. Consider the impact of your work–how does it further the greater good? Where should your energy be best spent?
Execute: Give full focus to completing one task with excellence in mind. Remain mindful of any negative thoughts or emotions that may arise; be intentional about how each word is spoken as they carry great power over our physiological state. Avoiding catastrophizing at all costs as pessimism has a much bigger effect than we often realize.
Negativity can quickly take hold of us and bring us down, but we can always
choose to turn things around. Psychologists refer to this as catastrophizing,
where our emotions are amplified by the words we use. But with a few simple
steps, we can reboot and create an environment that lifts ourselves – and those
around us – out of negativity.
For starters, focus on what’s going right rather than what went wrong. This
will help you project inner composure and peace outward, which is contagious!
Others will begin to mirror your state of confidence instead of fear or worry.
If it helps, practice being aware before reacting so that you are in control of
how you respond in demanding situations.
By shifting away from solutions-focused energy towards presence-oriented
energy, you open yourself up to reframing experiences more positively while
rewiring them into something cohesive. You become coherently present –
congruent, confident, curious, and clear – all traits that make for successful
leaders during stressful times!
By expanding your awareness and deepening your commitment to yourself, you
will be able to realign your intentions. Here are some practices that can help
you achieve this:
• Notice the positive aspects of any given situation and transform them into
uplifting experiences.
• Take the time to savor and appreciate what you have been given.
• Keep up the momentum by sustaining these positive feelings.
• Allow yourself to become emotionally connected with each experience – don’t
just observe it from afar!
• Intensify the sensations by investing all your senses in each moment.
• Feel how each positive experience is being embedded deeply within you,
enabling new pathways for growth and development.
When you tap into a deeper level of connection with yourself, you can access an
inner wisdom that guides you on your journey towards greatness. The more effort
that you invest in creating and embodying who you want to become, the more others around you will recognize it too!
Written by Joseph Clementi “Coach Joe”