Career Transitions

Turning chaos into careers

Katharine Brooks, Ed.D. is the Director of Liberal Arts Career Services at The University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of You Majored in What? See full bio

February 19, 2009, Work

Boxing Away the Stress In Your Life

Keeping perspective in a time of anxiety.

Snail on turtle

Did you see the morning news? According to an Associated Press poll nearly half of all Americans are worrying about becoming unemployed-double the percentage from last year.

I wonder what we're supposed to do with the information? How are we to respond? Surveys aren't facts or news: they're opinions. What does it mean that twice as many people are worried about their jobs as last year? How does that affect us in our daily routine? It probably doesn't, yet we're conditioned to view this as important: as if it's predicting the future. If 50% of Americans are worried, shouldn't you be worried too? Maybe you need to worry that you're not worried.

A brilliant axiom about advertising is that it takes away your self-esteem and sells it back to you. You thought you were fine, but then you saw that ad for the new deodorant and now you're not so sure. Maybe if you buy the deodorant you'll be OK again.

If advertising takes away our self-esteem, what are the news headlines taking away?

Perspective.

Anxiety sells. We all get caught up in the alarming reports scrolling across our TV screens. Logically, though, we know that the news is spun in a way to make us more likely to watch it and boost ratings.

It's easy to let anxiety and worry take over. The economic facts alone will do the trick: the opinions and hype just seal the deal. I've seen anxiety levels rising in my friends whose jobs are relatively secure. So how do you fight the fears? How do you keep from being paralyzed?

Is the answer just to turn off the news? Some would advocate that, but ignorance isn't usually a good solution. If anything, Americans need to be better informed about current events.

When we're worried about losing our jobs, or we've lost our job and are worried about finding another, we have probably lost some perspective in our lives.

In her excellent book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers offers valuable wisdom for moving forward in times of stress. One of my favorite sections of the book deals with the boxes of life.

Jeffers says that we tend to place a lot of emphasis on just one or two areas (or boxes) of our lives: usually it's a relationship and work. We focus on keeping those two areas going. The only problem is-- what happens when one of those areas falls apart? If half our time was devoted to a job, there's a big hole in our lives when it's gone. We lose our perspective.

Jeffers proposes that we focus on developing 9 areas of our lives simultaneously. You get to identify the 9 boxes you'd like to focus on: perhaps family, friends, volunteering, hobbies, health, money/finances, etc. After identifying your nine areas, write down three goals for each area. Then write down what actions you'll take this week to move toward achieving each of the goals in each of the areas. Sound like a lot? It is, but notice what happens when you have 9 boxes instead of 2. If one box falls out, you still have 8 other areas in your life to draw strength from. You focus on the strengths that remain, while you work to replace the lost box.

So grab a pencil, draw nine boxes, label each box with an important area in your life, and start planning your new fuller life. Focus on the solutions, not the problems. Focus on what gives meaning to your life.

Don't let a survey tell you how you should feel or what you should think.

Keep your perspective.

After all, what did the snail say while riding on the turtle's back?

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee"

Photo by Adarsh Pagegal from flickr.com.