Practicing for Hard Times

by Alison Chapman

During tough times, we should try to keep a handle on our mood and energy levels if we hope to maintain our work life balance and achieve success. Some people are hardwired to respond to things optimistically, others are simply wired differently. Fortunately, we can improve our chances of staying resilient and hopeful by acquiring positive thinking skills.

The process of building optimism and positive thinking is similar to working out. You have to focus on your goals and commit your time to it. If you approach a workout program with that focus, then you can improve your fitness and the ability to successfully reach goals. Similarly, if you approach improving your resilience this way, you can improve your ability to think positively.

The first hurdle to get over is realizing that you need to change your way of thinking in order to think positively. You can not change the person you are but understand that you can get overwhelmed and anxious at times, which is okay. Do not complain about how you are feeling but realize that you have the power to control your work/life balance. Start thinking this way immediately, not only when you decide you are ready or when it’s convenient. Do your best not to interpret your progress in the short term, just as you should not measure an increase in strength and endurance after a single workout. However, you should take note that you will see a small change in the short term that will eventually build to envelope your whole self and the changes that will come about as an end result of the process.

People who think pessimistically tend to dispute the positive and accept the negative. People who are optimistic tend to assume that their life balance will be restored, good events will eventually occur and that bad events are an exception. You have to work at restoring your work life balance so that you will have good events and avoid the bad ones. We should all strive to be optimistic so we can continue to maintain work life balance and be successful.