This week’s blog post is inspired by a conversation I was having in a coaching session earlier this week.
My client, Katherine, has a lot on with a new team member starting the first day she returns to work after her holiday and she was feeling quite stressed about what to prepare before she goes away so that she’s ready for her first day back in the office and her new team member’s first day in his new role.
Also factoring in that she wants to spend quality time with him that first day back, yet also knowing she’ll have a lot of emails to go through and things to sort out given she’ll have been off for over 2 weeks.
I’d also say that there was a bit of ‘travel anxiety’ stress in the mix as well with her holiday coming up – if you missed my recent blog on travel anxiety you can find it here.
What came to me, when I was discussing all the pre-and post-holiday details with my client, was a phrase or question that I often refer to:
It’s to ask yourself, “What if this could be easy?”
A previous business coach of mine gave me a postcard with this phrase on it, which I still have on my pinboard in my office as a regular reminder. The postcard actually says “Let it be easy”, but I like to ask the question, “What if this could be easy?”, as it directs your brain to look for ways to make something easy or easier.
So often, when we’re stressed, overwhelmed, tired etc we start viewing the world through the lens of stress and potential threats. This outlook usually complicates things and further continues the cycle of stress.
I’d even say that because we glorify stress in Western society, we, therefore, expect everything to be more stressful than it might need to be!
By asking ourselves, “What if this could be easy?”, we might see a completely different way of doing something because now our mind isn’t looking at the situation through the lens of stress and overwhelm. We’re looking for ease – the absence of difficulty or effort.
For Katherine, my client, when we looked at her situation this way, she realised that everything was okay and that she’s already got what she needs for her new team member’s first day and that it could be far simpler than she was imagining.
She really felt the perspective shift from stress and pressure to making the whole thing easy and light-hearted if she chooses to look at it that way.
You can apply this question to anything in life when you find yourself stressed or if something feels complicated.
It’s also a great question to ask in team meetings to get everyone looking at problems or issues through the lens of efficiency and simplicity.
If you feel this could be a useful tool, I recommend that you write down the question, “What if this could be easy?”, and put it somewhere where you’ll see it on a regular basis – ideally on a pinboard, whiteboard or somewhere in your office so that you’re reminded to ask yourself the question whenever things feel stressful or complicated.
Kate x
