Career Tips - Issue # 33 (Sept 2006)

FREE monthly newsletter dedicated to your career development.

You'll need less than 10 minutes to read this newsletter.

FIGHT, not flight

I should have written this newsletter two or three weeks back, but I didn't. The reason for this delay has a direct connection with an accident I narrowly avoided yesterday.

Last night, I was out enjoying the cool winds while doing some brisk walking on a narrow walkway. But all the serenity and inner silence was suddenly shattered by a loud sound. My blood pressure went up and so did my alertness level. In a reflex action, I turned around and moved sideways. Next moment, a guy whizzed past within inches of my right arm on his racing bicycle. Apparently, he couldn't see me, but thanks to the sound he made by bumping over a manhole cover 2-3 meters behind me, I could move out of his way and am well enough to sit and write.

After avoiding the collision, with my blood pressure back to normal, I felt that apart from being slightly disturbing, it was also an interesting experience for two reasons. First, what I had just gone through was an experience of "fight or flight" response, for which we are all hardwired. American psychologist Walter Cannon discovered in 1929 that whenever we encounter a perceived attack, harm or threat to our survival, an automatic, inbuilt response is triggered in our bodies, enabling us to either flee or fight.

The second reason why I found the experience interesting was because it gave an insight into how we react to threats in our working environment. Often, we face tasks that threaten our comfort level. For example, we may be required to prepare a reply explaining a cost overrun in a project or write a report to a client providing an explanation for a problem or encounter a complex, difficult task for which we have no ready-made answers or do something that requires concentrated effort for extended periods.

Based on my personal experience and observations about others, given a choice, we tend to flee away from tasks that are difficult, demanding (mainly in terms of attention), messy, complex or embarrassing--anything that threatens our comfort level. And instead, we gravitate towards trivial stuff like excessive checking/reading of e-mails, surfing the Web, attending useless meetings, etc. According to an online survey on the londoncareer.net Web site, about 40% people check their e-mails continuously and another 15% check it several times during an hour.

But when the tasks that we try to avoid turn into hot, big or overdue problems, we are left with no choice but to come back and fight them--rather fire-fight them. So we follow a cycle: First we avoid a task that threatens our comfort level, then it blows up and then we come back to fight it. It's something like putting off studies for an exam until it comes dangerously close.

Behind many of your today's big problems, customer complaints and issues causing stress is likely to be this cycle of first fleeing and then trying to fight.

You may not agree with what I have described above, but, in my opinion, all of this happens when we have a choice. The words "given a choice" mentioned above are important.

>>CAREER TIP:All of us face a variety of tasks. Some we like to do and some we don't feel like doing--a report, proposal, presentation, problem to be solved, estimate. The challenge we face every day is to confront the real, solid work that needs to be done and avoid getting trapped in escapist activities like excessive dealing with e-mails, Web surfing, unnecessary meetings, etc.

The more we show the courage and discipline to confront head-on the issues that threaten our comfort level today, more we would eliminate the possibility of having to rush back and fight urgent problems, customer complaints, hot issues and stressful situations tomorrow.

And to defy the flight-fight cycle, I would suggest asking two questions and taking one action when you begin your work every morning:

- Ask yourself: What needs to be done today?
- Ask yourself: Out of those things that need to be done, which one I want to avoid doing the most?
- Action: After answering the above question, spend next 10 minutes on that task which you wish to avoid the most. Yes, just 10 minutes!

If you follow the above practice, you will begin each day with real peace of mind and comfort. Mark Twain has said: "Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain."

I hope now you know why I delayed writing this newsletter. Well, it's a task that threatens my comfort level. No wonder I have been fleeing from it, but now that it is overdue, here I am--fighting it out.

What is that task which you are fleeing from? FIGHT IT!

Atul Mathur

FORWARD IT: Would you like to share what you've just read with any of your friends? Click below to send a link to your friend.

Tell-a-Friend

To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:subscribe Career Tips

***Copyright 2006 Atul Mathur***

← Back to newsletter listing page