How to be your Best Self at work

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Morning friend ☕️ 

Hope your weekend was good!

For me personally, stress has been taking its toll…

New job, relocation logistics, saying goodbye to friends and family.

Sometimes I wonder if I might snap and turn into my own version of The Hulk.

Like the Hulk, every manager has two selves:

There’s the one who shows up focused, calm, and clear. 

Your Higher Self.

And then there’s… the other you. Frazzled. Short tempered. Impatient.

Your Lower Self.

More of a liability than an asset to your team.

Most managers just accept whichever self shows up that day.

But top managers do things differently. They can recognize and shift their state when they want.

They can go from their lower self to being in the zone fast.

How can you do the same?

Grab your coffee ☕️ 

Let’s chat!

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The higher self vs the lower self

I read Jodie Cook’s insightful article last week and it was so enlightening, I just had to give this idea the Scary Management treatment.

According to Jodie, your lower self “magnifies every issue. That email becomes a crisis. That comment becomes an attack. That delay becomes a catastrophe. Your breathing gets shallow. Your muscles tighten.”

But your higher self “sees life with clarity. Problems shrink to their actual size. You are chill where others are stressed. Your breathing slows. Your shoulders drop.”

Your performance at work depends on maximizing your higher self, while minimizing your lower self.

How to do this?

How to align with your Best Self and Perform at your Highest Level?

There are 5 tips to aligning with your best self.

1. Identify the signals. “Your body sends signals when you've dropped into your lower state.” Whether it’s a pounding headache, tension between the shoulders, or a tightness in your chest, you know what your unique physical symptoms are for your lower self. Get used to identifying this state.

2. Have your interventions ready. My go-to interventions to snap out of my lower self? Taking a walk. A hot shower. A power nap. A gym workout. Laughter with a friend. Depending on the symptoms, one of these usually does the trick.

3. Change emotions in stages. “You can't jump straight from frustration to joy. The gap is too wide. But you can move from frustration to annoyance.” From there you move to acceptance, then contentment and then optimism. The idea is to transition to your higher self in stages.

4. Break default triggers. "Am I actually upset, or do I just think I'm upset because I'm in a pattern from something that once upset me?" Sometimes, we find ourselves in our lower selves purely out of habit. The trick is to break your brain’s “automations” that send you into the lower self.

5. Keep choosing your higher self. You have the power to choose which state to be in. The more you practice identifying and shifting states, the easier it becomes. And the more time you spend in your higher self, the better your performance will be.

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Key Takeaway

The Hulk's journey mirrors our own path as leaders.

We all have a reactive "lower self" that snaps at teammates and makes impulsive decisions under stress.

But we also have a "higher self". The conscious leader who responds rather than reacts and serves the team's greater good.

As a reactive measure, you can transition out of the lower-self state by understanding your own symptoms, triggers and interventions.

As a proactive measure, work to identify and eliminate your “automated” responses that send you into your lower self.

You have the power to choose to be in your higher self’s state and improve your performance as a manager.

That’s it for today friend.

Hope you enjoyed!

PS: How did I do in my first 30 days at Capitec? Check out next week’s post for my review!

Chess

Black to move and force mate in 5 moves.

Move the pieces and try to solve here.