Have you consciously taken advantage of the past corona period to reflect on the direction you want your career to take and feel stuck in a "start-stop" mode?
Or do you rather experience paralysis due to procrastination, brooding thoughts, irrational thinking, fears around health and uncertainty around the evolution of your job and your employer?
Then be aware that there are "bears in your path" are.
The phrase "bears on the road" (problems or obstacles) has been around since prehistoric times. Man needed the bear to survive. Hunting followed a set pattern of attacking, fighting and killing. One day a hunter had enough of this and he devised a plan. By digging a pit and covering it with branches and leaves, the bear fell into a trap. This eliminated the need for fighting and allowed people to deal differently with the often life-threatening situations during bear hunts.
Even today, bears often pop up in a context of change.
Your own concoctions are at the root and cause unnecessary energy loss and stress. You recognize them readily by reactions such as: "Changes are never fun, What if ...?, Does this really have to be ...? What about ...?, How are we going to do that ...?, Yes but ..."
How do "bears" arise?
Bears are fed from your thought patterns and from your feelings that are driven by your thinking:
1. Your thinking patterns:
Tension and stress are partly related to outside influences. People create their own tension and stress using irrational thought patterns.
- perfectionism
- brooding (doom/disaster thinking)
- need for love or recognition
- Annoyances (low frustration tolerance)
- demanding moralism (powerlessness, injustice)
2. What you think, you feel:
Your way of thinking and fantasizing ultimately determines how you feel and how you act and behave.
It is important to be aware of the interrelationship between the elements below that determine your frame of reference :
- perceiving (the facts)
- interpret (the meaning given to the facts)
- evaluate (the appreciation of the facts)
How do you deal with your "bears"?
People with bears often blame the cause of tension and anxiety on the situation itself: "It's not me."
You can turn a lot of bears into something positive or make them disappear by handling situations differently. For example, you will get a long way if you keep your focus on your personal circle of influence:
- be proactive
- start with the end in mind
- prioritize
- Set boundaries
If you want to read more about this, we can certainly recommend the following books:
- Stephen Covey : The seven traits of effective leadership
- Theo IJzermans : Bears on the road, spins in your head