Reduce Anxiety & Make Decisions with Ease

Ep: 171

When the time comes for you to make a big decision, does your mind immediately go into overdrive? 

If the pressure of decision-making causes your palms to sweat, your shoulders to tighten up, and your thoughts to race uncontrolled, then you should know that there is another way to handle these stress-inducing situations.

Today on The Bridge to Fulfillment, Blake reveals what’s really going on when we feel overwhelmed in the face of big decisions. She explains why feelings of anxiety take over and how you can clear the path toward better, calmer decision-making.

In this episode, you’ll learn why the roots of anxiety that cloud our decision-making process show up, and how to reframe those feelings in order to gain clarity. You’ll learn techniques for coping with and reducing anxiety, the right questions to ask yourself when you encounter these situations, and how you can start to make big decisions with more ease.

Are you ready to move beyond decision-making anxiety? 

Making great decisions quickly and confidently is possible. 

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • The repercussions of anxiety (1:10)
  • How to better understand why you feel anxiety (1:26)
  • One of the biggest mistakes we make when trying to make a decision (2:46)
  • How to avoid analysis paralysis (3:39)

 

Favorite Quotes:

  1. Anxiety steals your joy, your time, and if prolonged, your health.
  2. We can actually use our emotions to work for us as opposed to allowing them to drive our lives.
  3. If you are anxious about doing something, it’s because you are feeling the multiplicative effects of uncertainty and powerlessness around that thing. And because it is multiplicative, one thing dramatically increases the other.
  4. It is in taking action that we begin to remember that we have the power and resourcefulness to solve the challenges in front of us.

Additional Resources: 

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is. 

We can help you do just that.

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to: https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

Transcript

Blake Schofield 0:05 Hi, I’m Blake Schofield, founder, and CEO of The Bridge to Fulfillment, mom to three, USA Today top 10 professional coach, and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to expand women’s perspectives and empower them to achieve greater impact at home and work without sacrifice. This is The Bridge to Fulfillment.

Blake Schofield 0:39 Whenever we are faced with making a big decision, anxiety often is the first thing to rise up. In response, we either shut down or our brains go into overdrive trying to solve the puzzle, reduce the stress and anxiety and finally get peace of mind. If you’ve ever felt like your mind is spinning and won’t shut off, then you know exactly what I mean. Whether the stress shows up in terms of tightness in your shoulders, a pit in your stomach, or the incessant need to obsess about the topic until you solve it. Anxiety steals your joy, time and if prolonged your health. Most of us have never been taught how to handle anxiety nor understand what causes it. So we can actually use our emotions to work for us as opposed to them driving our lives. Today, I’m going to share a valuable lesson that a friend and mentor of mine, Dan Nicholson shared with me, if you listen and apply what you’re about to learn, you will find yourself more capable of solving bigger challenges stuck far less often. And with much less anxiety and more ease as you move through the challenges and unknown that comes your way. Here it is. Anxiety equals uncertainty times powerlessness. I’m gonna say that again. Anxiety equals uncertainty times powerlessness. If you are anxious about doing something, it’s because you are feeling the multiplicative effects of uncertainty and powerlessness around that thing. And because it is multiplicative, one thing dramatically increases the other. You know, anxiety can be acute, and it can be chronic, it can take many forms. But at the end of the day, there’s a clear path on what to do. To reduce anxiety, you need to reduce uncertainty and or powerlessness.

Blake Schofield 2:29 So let’s talk a little bit and break down how you might do that. So to reduce uncertainty, uncertainty is when you are missing information, you’re unclear on the right path, or what it is that you need. You’re going to want to seek information or answers to your questions. Often we’re trying to make decisions. Without enough information, we feel tremendous anxiety and stress. Because we believe that we have to make a decision based on what we know today. And that is one of the biggest mistakes. Instead sit down and start asking yourself, what are the things I don’t know? What’s the information missing that I need in order to feel more confident in making a decision. Whether it is researching, reading a book or seeking expert advice, the more certainty you get, the less anxious you will be. Now on the flip side, if the information you’re getting is actually making you more anxious, then you start increasing uncertainty. And that’s when you start getting information overload and cognitive dissonance and you want to stop, because you’re getting too far ahead of where you are. increasing uncertainty through information gathering at that point would be counterproductive, and usually ends up creating analysis paralysis. So if you’ve ever felt like you needed to make a decision, and you kept gathering data and kept gathering data and kept gathering data, and you felt more and more lost, that is the exact sign of what I’m talking about. You’re gathering too much information and creating too much uncertainty. And you need to stop and walk away from that. So what about if you’re feeling powerless? Usually, we feel powerless when we think that there’s nothing we could do to change our circumstances that we’re stuck or trapped, or that our voice doesn’t matter or that things are going to happen regardless of what we think or want. Well, in order to reduce powerlessness, you need to take action, and take intervention in a circumstances. Now, this isn’t always easy, because often our first instinct will be to wait and gather more information. But it is in taking action that we begin to remember that we have the power and resourcefulness to solve the challenges in front of us. Now, sometimes we might seek power and it might actually create more anxiety. If that happens. That’s again, a point to stop. Perhaps the approach that you’re taking, or the person that you’re working with isn’t the right person in order to move forward or there’s a different approach you need to utilize in order to feel more in control. But at the end of the day, if you want to reduce anxiety, you focus on reducing uncertainty and reducing powerlessness. And it’s incredibly powerful.

Blake Schofield 5:04 I had a circumstance just this week when I was feeling a lot of anxiety about something really new and unknown. And I had to remind myself of a couple of things. The Virginia Satir quote, most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. Why did I bring that up? Because I realized, why am I exploring this other avenue? Well, I’m exploring this other avenue, because I know that the current avenue I have is just choosing the certainty of misery. And so that helped me during a period of uncertainty say, Wait a second, I need to explore something different. This is the right thing. Right, I’m not wasting my time, I don’t need to go back to what I know. Because I know what I know isn’t gonna get me where I need to go. And that gave me some peace. And then I stopped and I said, Okay, what is it? Is it that I feel like I don’t have power? Or is it that I feel uncertain. And as I was able to really break down the challenge, what I realized is, there were a number of things, I just didn’t know what it would look or feel like I was missing information I needed to gather. And I felt a little bit of powerlessness, because I didn’t know what actions to take, or if there were actions I could take. However, by sitting down going through this process, I was really able to identify what questions or concerns I had, what gaps were sitting there for me that I needed to close, as well as maybe what actions I could take to actually feel more empowered. And in doing so it totally flipped the situation on its head. And it gave me the ability to make a lot of progress with a lot more ease. So now that you know this anxiety equals uncertainty times powerlessness, I want to encourage you to put it into practice, because knowledge without application or consistency will never yield results. You can start small today by thinking of something that’s causing you anxiety and then identify, am I uncertain, ie missing information? Or do I feel powerless? I think there’s nothing I can do. Once you’ve identified those barriers, then begin taking action. And soon you’ll see that anxiety begin to wane and your momentum begin to build.

Blake Schofield 7:10 Thanks so much for joining me today. Until next time, have a great week. Thanks for joining me today. Rather than hope the grass will be greener identify what the right next step is. We can help you do just that. Get clarity on where you are in your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there, and the right next step to take. Start your complimentary personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan . Again, you can get your personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan . Thanks again for joining and have a great week ahead!