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Ep #35: A Power Thought to Dial Up Your Resilience

 

Mastering The Power Skills with Kathy Dockry | A Power Thought to Dial Up Your Resilience

You’ve all likely experienced those moments where you’re not feeling like your normal capable self at work. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, stuck, or simply can’t get into the zone. This happens to everyone from time to time, but what can you do to get back to an empowered and energized state? 

Research shows that deliberately and intentionally choosing a new thought to think in instances like this can shift your emotional state in a more positive direction. That’s why, in these mini episodes, you’ll learn simple power thoughts that will make you more effective and get you back in the game when necessary.

Listen in to hear one quick, high-impact thought that you can use whenever you find that you’re not functioning as your best self. You’ll learn why we sometimes just need a simple shift in our mindset rather than a whole new strategy, and how power thoughts give you a fresh way of looking at whatever you might be facing. 

 

If you’d like some personal guidance on how to use the power skills of influence, persuasion, or presence in your workplace, we’ve got your back. Email us explaining your situation, and we’ll feature your inquiry on an upcoming episode, making sure you have tips and strategies to help navigate your situation skillfully, all while keeping your identity anonymous of course!

 

 

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

  • What a power thought is. 
  • The value of learning how to deliberately choose a new thought. 
  • The impact of the power thought, “I am not what’s happening to me.”

 

Listen to the Full Episode:

Featured on the Show:

 

Full Episode Transcript:

 

You are listening to Episode 35 of Mastering The Power Skills. And this is one of our occasional mini-episodes where I share a power thought with you. What is a power thought? Well, imagine you’re not quite feeling your normal, capable self at work. You’re feeling maybe overwhelmed, or frustrated or stuck. Or maybe you just don’t have your normal focus. You’re not in the zone.

 

Now we’ve all been there at some point, right? And we’ll all likely be there again from time to time. So what can you do to get back to an empowered and energized state? To get back to your normal self? You can do that by choosing a thought. A thought that reframes the situation so that you can see new possibilities and new choices that you can make.

 

I call these thoughts power thoughts. We know from neuroscience and from studies of high caliber performance athletes, that deliberately and intentionally choosing a new thought to think creates clarity that you didn’t have before. And it shifts your emotional state back in a positive direction. It makes you more effective and it gets you back in the game.

 

And we also know that the very best performers, whether they’re athletes or groundbreaking leaders, are well equipped with power thoughts that help them navigate challenges with greater ease and accomplish great things.

 

So, join us in this episode of Mastering The Power Skills to learn a new thought that can empower you, and get you back in the game when you need that.

 

How much more could you accomplish if you were 25% or even 50% more influential and persuasive? Welcome to Mastering The Power Skills, the podcast that provides you with the tips, strategies, and the inspiration to grow your own power and win support for your ideas. And now here’s your host, C-suite leadership coach Kathy Dockry.

 

Hi, everyone. I’m so glad to be starting this power thought feature on the podcast. Now you know me, there are going to be plenty of episodes to come on the tips, the techniques and the strategies that will make you more influential, persuasive, and even give you greater presence in your career. But let’s be realistic, there are also times when a very simple shift in our mindset is what we need.

 

We don’t need a complete strategy at those times. We just need a fresh way of looking at things so we can feel re-energized and empowered. That’s the goal of these occasional mini-episodes that we’ll have on the podcast, to give you a quick, high impact thought that you can use whenever it’s needed. So let’s get into it now.

 

Today’s power thought is one of my favorites, and a favorite of some of my most successful leaders that I’ve coached. Here it is. It’s, I am not what’s happening to me. So let me repeat that again. It’s, I am not what’s happening to me. Simply saying this thought to yourself can have an amazing impact on you when you’re feeling high levels of stress or overwhelm.

 

And why is that the case? Well, one of the reasons that make high achievers so good at what they do is the high level of commitment that they feel for the task at hand. Those feelings of caring deeply and committing strongly help high achievers perform at, well, perform at high levels. And that sounds pretty good, right?

 

Except there’s a catch. Sometimes you can over commit. Sometimes targeting an objective is not something you’re simply doing. Instead, if you’re a high achiever you can tip over into a space where it feels like your very identity, your personal worth is at stake. You’ve gone from targeting an objective to over identifying with the objective. And that’s actually not a good place to be in terms of your ultimate performance and success.

 

Just like an athlete, you need to commit. But you also need to keep a clear and objective state of mind. That’s the place where you’ll be making your best choices, and also your best decisions. In that space you can be cool and intentional, versus emotionally reactive and pushed around by the events around you.

 

That tipping point between healthy commitment and over commitment can be hard to see. It can creep up on you without you realizing. But if you stop rushing around for a minute and take a deep breath, it can become clear to you. Because when you stop, and if you’re feeling deep feelings of overwhelm or stress, frustration, or apathy, or even dread, those feelings are not just caused by the events around you.

 

Sure, bad things with potentially bad consequences may in fact be happening because it’s the work world, of course. There will always be challenge after challenge, whether it’s the situation that you’re in or the people with whom you work. But if you want to navigate those challenging situations with skill and success, you need to be functioning as your best self.

 

You don’t want your brain to be hijacked by all those unpleasant emotions. And you want to get yourself back to a place where your brain is its usual resourceful and resilient self. And that’s what this particular power thought will help you do.

 

When you remind yourself I am not what’s happening to me, you’re pulling yourself back from over identifying with your situation and you’re starting to tap into your inner resourcefulness. You may be in a challenging spot, but you’re going to be better equipped to make decisions as to how to navigate through it.

 

One last thing, by the way, to make a power thought work for you, you have to keep repeating it. And this is because you’re rewiring your current thoughts and feelings. Just saying a sentence once to yourself isn’t enough to transform you. But if you keep on saying that thought to yourself throughout the day when those feelings arise, or perhaps even writing that thought down, you’re going to start to notice a difference.

 

The unpleasant feelings may still be there, but in a different way. They’re more manageable and less distracting. And you’re reminding yourself over and over again about something that’s always been true, the belief that you yourself are fundamentally okay, whatever the situation is, and that you can figure things out.

 

In other words, you’re reminding yourself that you’re more empowered, and you’re feeling more empowered. Okay, my friends, that’s a power thought to put in your collection for when you need it. I am not what’s happening to me. I hope you all have an awesome week ahead and I’ll see you in our next episode.

 

Hey there, would you like some personal guidance about how to use the power skills of influence, persuasion, or presence in a particular situation in your workplace? Well, if so, we’ve got your back. Just send us a note explaining your situation to powerskills@significagroup.com. We’ll drop that email address in the show notes. We’ll feature your inquiry in an upcoming episode, keeping your identity anonymous, of course, and make sure you have some tips and strategies to help you navigate your particular situation skillfully.

 

Thanks for listening to this episode of Mastering The Power Skills. If you like what was offered in today’s show and want more insights and resources from Kathy, check us out at www.significagroup.com.

 

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About the author

Kathy Dockry is the Managing Director of Significa Group LLC. Our clients are CEO’s, senior management executives, functional leaders, and fast-rising high potentials in complex organizations. Significa helps them hone the leadership, influence and navigational skills that takes their career success to new levels and brings meaningful change to their organizations. www.significagroup.com.