If you’re unfamiliar with meditation, it is not about just sitting quietly or trying to channel some mystical energy of the universe. Many of the most emotionally grounded people have strengthened their minds through meditation. A fast walk around the neighborhood, a yoga session, or after work pickup basketball game would all be great. You just need to move in a way that gets your heartbeat way up for twenty minutes a day. Thankfully, you don’t need to become an overnight gym rat to control your stress. If you like to exercise as much as I do, you are probably groaning at this recommendation. This is because exercise increases the amount of feel-good hormones like serotonin, and reduces cortisol which is the primary stress hormone. Numerous studies have shown that exercise reduces stress, anxiety and even depression. If you want to monitor the amount of deep sleep you get each night, I’ve personally tried and would recommend these trackers: Whoop, Fitbit, Withings. Eight hours of sleep isn’t realistic for most of us, but instead of focusing on the quantity of sleep, you should focus on the quality of sleep (ie, maximizing time in deep sleep). In my book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, I interviewed 13 Olympic athletes and their number one secret was to get more sleep. Successful people are also intentional about their sleep. High protein diets, vegan diets, intermittent fasting, so many options! For myself, if I want to optimize for motivation and energy (not rapid weight loss) I consume five small slow or low-carb meals a day. Your new mantra: Food is fuel! There is probably nothing more controversial in the health and fitness world than what and when to eat. Successful people are intentional about when and what they eat. Our environment is the biggest variable when it comes to behavior, and our body is the immediate environment of our minds. There’s a lot of wisdom in those Snickers commercials that claim you aren’t you when you’re hungry. So how do successful people do it? How do they remain calm under pressure? How do they overcome the normal and natural reaction to regress, when under stress? Even in the face of crisis, their emotional reaction is the equivalent of Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell’s message, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” And many studies have shown the positive correlation between emotional intelligence and regulation and leadership effectiveness. While others are racing and reacting throughout the day, highly successful executives seem to walk calmly, purposefully and remain focused on their predefined objectives. Most people agree that part of executive presence is a cool, calm, confident demeanor. But everyone agrees they know when they see it. There is, of course, no standard definition as what “it” actually is. Great Leaders Say, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”Įxecutive presence is one of the most popular courses taken by managers in the LEADx library. If senior leadership observes me crying or yelling, they may question whether I would be able to handle the increased pressure that comes with advancement. I may be a great leader for five months in a row, but if there is one day where I scream at you and demean you, it would be hard for you to feel good about my leadership ever again. As much as we’d like to think modern organizations want to support the “whole person,” and we should be open to authentic sharing of emotions at work, the fact remains that even a single emotional outburst can derail a career path. Roger Lipson, calls it the “low frequency, high impact” effect. And of course, if you were a child who threw tantrums-or objects-when things didn’t go your way, you may be a “screamer” under stress at work.Įxecutive coach, Dr. Today, my stress reaction is to “shut down” and to shut people out. As a child, I would run away and hide in my room or just sit sullenly if things weren’t going my way. Many psychologists believe that we regress, or return to, behaviors we used in childhood when faced with an emotional threat.
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