Stress and anxiety versus perspective and planning

Have you ever had a task in front of you that made you feel out of your comfort zone and nervous? I think all of us have at some stage. I know I certainly have. Learning, or mastering, new things can fill a person with trepidation and leave them feeling isolated and anxious. Not a good way to feel. I have one of those tasks ahead of me in the next couple of days and I’m feeling somewhat out of my depth; I’m controlling the anxiety as that’s not a very productive emotion however am quite nervous. image source

I’ve just had one of my rifles painted (cerakoted) in a battle worn finish and will be collecting the multitude of bits tomorrow night. There’s about 70 or so bits ranging from springs, screws and clips to the barrel, stock, picatinny rails etc. With firearms they don’t tend to work well if there’s left over items after reassembly and so there’s no margin for error. I’m no slouch around the tools of course however I don’t have an engineering background so will rely on the exploded image in the owners manual to assist in getting it together. I’m hoping to have no issues. The image to the right and below show some of the parts after the cerakote paint work. Yes, they look worn and old right? That's the whole idea of it. (The hand grenade in the image is not part of the gun. It's not a live grenade either. I just had it cerakoted at the same time. :)

Thinking about the reassembly of this firearm and how it was making me feel today kind of mirrored my day at work a little. I have spent some time with a couple of the newer (young) salespeople, who have been floundering somewhat, in an endeavour to determine why. Laziness? Yes, certainly. Inexperience? Yes, of course. Lack of direction? Absolutely yes…The list goes on. However after talking with them I started to understand that their fear of failure and the sheer scope of the role had left them feeling reluctant, unwilling or unable to move forward; A bit like a deer in the headlights. Startled into inactivity.

I’ve felt the same of course, way back when, and had to come up with strategies to combat this very common condition. New tasks or concepts can seem incredibly mountainous at first however with perspective they seem smaller and more achievable. Imagine standing next to a tall structure, the Eiffel Tower for instance. It’s big right? You can see steel curving upwards, massive rivets and a multitude of people swarming all over it. You’re too close to see it all at once or make much sense of it. Now walk a few hundred meters towards the Seine and over the Pont d’léna and look back towards the Eiffel Tower and you’ll see it in all it’s beauty and splendour, all 324 meters of it. Add some perspective and it all starts to make sense. (Even the little people start to disappear so one can enjoy the structure in it’s true glory)

Approaching a new task is like that; It just needs some perspective. I said as much to the young guys today and assisted them with some strategies around how to gain perspective in respect of their roles and the industry, prioritising them in order of importance and in plotting a path forward. Of course it’s not quite that simple but I had to start somewhere. I’m a big advocate of providing support without removing responsibility so whilst I could have determined and plotted out the journey for them I wanted them to do so as they would learn the process and then feel a sense of accomplishment at having reached their own plan. A win-win scenario for everyone. Naturally I was there to provide the necessary guidance and experience however kept them responsible and an hour later they produced some reasonable plans on paper. Once I gained their commitment to act on their plan and a time to reconvene and assess their progress they deployed back to their respective workspace’s to get to it.

That approach has worked well for me in business and my personal life whether I’m teaching someone to shoot, kayak, four-wheel-drive in the outback or build a career in a professional environment, whatever it is, the principle is the same. I’ll be applying it to the reassembly of my rifle in the next day or so and look forward to getting it right. Should I make someone else fire the gun for the first time after reassembly? Yep, probably! That’s not my way though; I’d never ask someone to do something I wouldn’t do, or haven’t done myself.

I’ll keep you posted. :)

[- The best way to increase your self esteem is to increase someone else’s -]