Three Work Anxiety Triggers and How to Deal With Them
Modern society is obsessed with more: more money, more power, more likes, more everything.
What are the top three triggers for anxiety in the workplace and how can they be avoided? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
These are triggers for anxiety in the workplace and often in life, as well.
1. The expectation that when life moves faster and the pace of change speeds up, we’re supposed to “run faster and just keep up.” In reality, this is a disaster: at best it’s anxiety and burnout at scale, at worst it means no one is able to reach their full potential. How to avoid it: Learn how to Run Slower — at a sustainable pace, so that you can show up fully for yourself and others.
2. The assumption that “more is better.” Modern society is obsessed with more: more money, more power, more likes, more everything. Yet it mostly makes us miserable and it’s destroying the planet, too. (Consumer mass marketing perpetuates this: It persuades us that our purpose in the world is merely “to buy stuff” and that we will never have, earn, do, achieve, or be enough.) How to avoid it: Challenge this assumption and rather than blindly pursuing more, Know Your “Enough.” Your “enough” is your point of satisfaction, contentment, and peace: not too much and not too little. Knowing Your “Enough” includes knowing that you are enough, just as you are, right now!
3. The belief that we can control the future. As much as humans would like to believe we can control what happens, what we seek is merely an illusion of control. A world in flux makes this abundantly clear, and technology often exacerbates this illusion. How to avoid it: Accept that no one — neither you nor I nor anyone — can control the future… but we can control how we respond. No one can predict “the” future… but we can prepare for many different possible futures. Get clear on the many different and wonderful ways you can contribute to a future that you’d like to see!
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