Dear Readers,
Thank you for coming here!
For the past few weeks since the extra commitment, my mood was up and down, even though not enough to say it was like a roller coaster.
The up and downs were mainly reactive, as they have always been for me.
For the past few weeks, they were reactive mainly to the challenges that came to me at work and how well I dealt with them.
Luckily, that was all manageable so far.
So at least for the past few weeks, my mood was anchored to what happened to me at work.
The level of anchoring evolved of course.
Initially, I was so used to “peaceful” and “relaxing” life that any challenges seemed a big deal.
And my mood swung accordingly, feeling the pressure of the challenges and the joy after they had been dealt with.
Now, I am more used to this “new normal” and the usual stuff no longer stirs much.
So do not underestimate your potential and ability to adapt. Do not self-limit. Go ahead and try it out.
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| Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash |
But what should our mood really be anchored to?
Being reactive to what happens around us is human nature and it is also necessary for us to live in such complex world.
But mood swings mean instability and most of the time noises. Therefore, they usually do more harm than good, even the good ones.
So it incentivizes us to have a more stable/constant anchor for our mood, while maintaining the ability to react.
What should that be?
While not knowing the answer, I do think having a goal and a structure for the goal is important.
Let me elaborate.
Let’s say I want to be a successful writer.
Then my structure could be to spend a certain amount of time every day on below two things:
- Gathering input, through reading, talking to people, observing the world etc etc
- Delivering output, through this blog, diary, work documents, LinkedIn etc etc
I think we all agree that if I keep doing these two things for a certain amount of time every day, I will be a better writer with time.
Then I can anchor my mood to whether I have done this constantly.
If I have done it, I can feel good, no matter whether I have seem any impact yet on the number of reads, number of comments etc.
Because I know I am on the way to achieve my goal.
And what’s more, it is mostly under my control, which gives stability and consistency to the anchor.
If I have not done it, it is a good enough reason to feel bad, about myself.
Feeling bad because of my fault is a motivator for me to make amends, which pushes me to keep to the right track.
A positive loop is formed!
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| Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash |
In The End
To avoid unnecessary mood swings and the mostly negative impact associated with them, we can find a more stable/constant anchor for our mood, instead of being reactive to what happens around us.
Three factors to consider while looking for the anchor:
- It connects to a structure that will help us achieve our end goals
- It is mostly under our control
- It forms a positive loop for us
To us all!
Till next time!
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