Being overwhelmed at work can cause anyone to have stress, but what you do with that stress is what can make you thrive or struggle.
In a high stress work environment, there are three types of hard working adults who operate in a high demanding job. The first group is the Thrivers, those who are productive in their work and sustain a great personal and professional life balance. On the other extreme are the Strugglers who do not operate in a high demanding job and most likely leave on their own to pursue opportunities elsewhere. In the middle are the Strivers who sometimes thrive and sometimes struggle.
My book Change Your Day Not Your Life has a quiz to help you identify where you stand in these three categories and what you can do to struggle less and thrive more. To take the quiz now, visit http://andycore.com/quiz/ to see if you are a Thriver, Striver, or Struggler.
In my quiz, one of the questions is, “When you are overwhelmed at work, which do you do more often?” Of those that answered this question: 6% said they would “set a new goal,” 71% said they would “focus on getting more organized,” and 23% said they would “vent to someone.” The research is very clear, the thriver behavior in this scenario is to set a new a goal when you feel overwhelmed.
If you’re looking for the secret to finding motivation, I believe the secret is written within the word itself. MOTIVATION = MOTION. Positive motion creates positive emotion.
Core Concept: Motivation is just momentum in disguise.
So, even if you set one small goal when feeling overwhelmed, you are eliciting a thriver behavior.
Now, being organized is very critical, but if your reaction to being overwhelmed is to get re-organized then you are exemplifying a struggler characteristic. The same with venting; we all need someone to vent to, but research has shown that when you vent at work you actually reduce your vitality and increase fatigue, resulting in the least productive reaction to being overwhelmed.
For more tips on how to reduce stress levels, read my book Change Your Day Not Your Life.