Do your co-workers ever feel upset or angry in the workplace?
Let’s look at the kind of feelings that can impact your work negatively and what kind of mental exercises can help you work around those feelings to keep your positive thinking alive.
Recognize those bad feelings
Positivity is a trait that is greatly valued by the people around you.
What may be lurking and disrupting a positive workflow by blocking those good feelings we need to feel about our daily work? Common culprits are:
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Anger
- Stress
Do you find yourself thinking or speaking under the influence of these emotions? Identify these negative thoughts and then consider the constructive thoughts that you need to re-program your mind to help manage or overcome this unproductive thinking. Rewrite the bad feelings and their typical expressions as follows:
Anxiety
I’m so worried
I’m nervous
I’m freaking out
This makes me very anxious
I get worried just thinking about this
The aim is to construct positive thinking that suits you in your daily life. For example, to handle the above bad feelings try developing some new thoughts like:
It’s normal to feel scared; I’m sure I will be OK.
I will get through this.
I can manage; it’s only temporary.
I will breathe deeply and focus on getting tasks done.
Fear (now let’s rewrite the new thoughts directly under the old, negative ones)
I’m scared
It’s normal to feel scared, but I will be OK.
I don’t want to be here
I will do what I need to, then leave.
Something bad might happen
I will not waste energy on worrying.
They’re not going to like my work
It will be good to get feedback on my work so I can keep improving.
I might fail
I will make sure I do the best I can.
This is going to be awful
I am wasting time worrying.
Anger
I am so angry – I hate working with him
I will change the way I think so we improve our relationship.
I’m seething inside
I am going to focus on positives, not negatives.
I feel cheated
I will only allow myself to feel bad for five minutes.
This infuriates me
I am going to smile and move forward.
I am so angry about this situation
I will do the best I can and focus on getting the best outcome.
Stress
I’m overloaded
I have a lot to do but I will get through it bit by bit.
There’s too much to do
I am going to do one task right now to feel better.
I’m not coping
I am going to talk to someone I trust and reset my priorities.
I just can’t do everything
I will complete what I can now, then decide on the rest.
I am not going to cope
I am determined to do the best I can
I can’t handle this
I can manage myself to get through this then feel proud of myself.
I’m a wreck
I will go for a walk and refresh myself to keep going.
How to mold your mindset
Try listing your top three bad feelings, then write new, positive thinking patterns that will help, not hinder. Be sure to help others in your team to use this strategy.
In sum, don’t let bad feelings hold you back from your best performance. It’s normal to have them, but when they get too out of control, they can impact our lives very negatively.