How are you sabotaging your plans with internal thought patterns?
We have entered the 4th quarter at my school and spring is just around the corner. Winter sports have concluded, and our spring events are about 2 weeks out. Before we know it, we will be transitioning into summer and starting to plan for the next school year this fall. As these thoughts come to mind, I cannot help but wonder whether we are better now than we were at the start of the year? Have I improved myself enough this past school year? I like to think things have only improved and I hope we are looking for even better improvements to come. Spring is always an exciting time in education as many situations change and are very fluid.
All organizations enter a time when the past initiatives are evaluated to see if they have met the set targets or goals. This is also a time where past failures are scrutinized. We get caught up in our own minds at times and cast judgment on actions we have taken. Bad attitudes and fear creep into our thoughts. This negative pattern then makes us fearful of alienating our people or make greater mistakes.
Fear of future failures for some is a big issue. Have you ever created failures in your mind, even before you start something new? All organizations have plans they would like to initiate or the next steps of some policy implementation. Leaders of these organizations can create worries or fears on how people may perceive this upcoming change. We tend to start to create an internal dialogue in our heads that we believe people may fight us on some aspect of the change. At times, these stories we create in our mind seldom occur and we have wasted a tremendous amount of time and energy dealing with this change in our minds. All this fear and concern whether it will go wrong only creates more fear to the point we fail to make any decisions.
Once we fall into the trap of not making decisions, we get nothing accomplished. We never accomplish our goals or the goals of the organizations we lead. We must face our internal conversations with ourselves and meet these concerns head-on. Push back this fear we think might happen. Some leaders can acknowledge their fears and find who or what is at the center of their fears and concerns. The best way to deal with one’s potential concerns, is to change how it affect you. Instead of seeing this fear as a negative, great leaders see it as an avenue to create their own positive path where the outcome is better then anticipated. If this potential change could cause people to react negatively, understand going in that we cannot change people’s reactions. We can choose to move forward with the goals of our organizations by dwelling on what could go wrong, how our people may react, or we could focus on what we can do now to make things go well. Get out of your head and stop allowing your preconceived negative thought patterns from allowing you or your organization from moving forward.
What thought patterns do you have that are hindering your progress?
Are you allowing fear to creep into your decision-making process?
What type of attitude do you allow that is affecting your growth or decisions?
I am no different than any other person. I too, tend to let my preconceived thoughts hinder my thinking and decision making. The hope is, to acknowledge this internal dialogue or fear of what could occur and face it head-on. Stop believing we know how people will react to our decisions and stop creating something that is not there. Have a wonderful week, and I hope you leave me some of your thoughts about negative thought patterns.
Steven C. Bucks-Leading Conversations
