Day 3: Choose What’s True
On day 2 we investigated what we were feeling by continuing to ask ourselves “why?” This helped us gain a better awareness of what events or thoughts in our lives is leading us to feel the way we may be feeling.
Today, we’re going question our thoughts that are driving what we are feeling.
Our thoughts determine our feelings, and our feelings unveil our thoughts, and it is our job to sift through the false thoughts and the true thoughts.
In day 2’s investigation I discovered that I felt anxious about work because I was afraid of pushing out an update that would break my company’s software. Now, I get to ask the question “is my core thought/belief true?” In other words, will I actually push out an update that will break our software?
Well, when I stop and question this my answer is no. Realistically, we have testing in place to prevent that from happening. But what if the worst case scenario happens? This is a great activity to practice, find the worst case scenario about the situation and play that out.
Again, worst case, I push out a broken update and what would happen? I’d find out about it, maybe feel a little stressed, and then I’d figure out what was broken and push out another update to fix the problem.
In my case, when I think about the worst case scenario, I find that it isn’t as scary as my mind wants to make it seem.
Furthermore, I can then pause and look at the situation as a whole and begin to ask myself what is actually true about the situation. When I begin to do that, I begin to remind myself that I’ve pushed out several updates without issues before. I remind myself that I am a really smart software developer and that I’m good at solving problems. I remember that I’ve never experienced a problem at my job that I wasn’t able to find a solution to.
When I start to dwell on what is true and remind myself what is true, the anxiety of the situation begins to subside and it is replaced by a confidence that begins to motivate me to go tackle the problem.
So whatever you are feeling today, my challenge to you is to begin to question the thoughts that are making you feel the way you are and then begin to decide what is actually true about the situation you are in.
Tomorrow, we’ll then decide what action we are going to take.
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If you would like help processing what you want to be true, I’d love to work with you! I offer one-on-one coaching and would love to help you process what you are currently feeling and help you figure out what to do about it. If this is something you think you might be interested in, I offer a free 30 minute consultation for you to share what you are experiencing and allow us time to discuss if one-on-one coaching would be right for you. It would be my honor to get the chance to listen to you!