This week a client shared that after several months of job search, she is engaged in powerful conversations with multiple potential employers. Her confidence is soaring and she is seeing how much she really has to offer. That, in turn, is making her discuss much bigger solutions and negotiate more interesting job roles. The dynamic is clear — as the pressure from the uncertainty of job search has gone down, her creativity has increased.
The dynamic is common to so many situations. When we feel destabilized by an unsupportive boss, new work situation, too many management changes or the pressure of delivering overly ambitious goals, we become more tentative, less effective. How can we find our voice — our best, most creative selves — in a world that will always expect more, faster?
My favorite go-to for untangling the impact of pressure and expectation is “Positive Intelligence”, both the book and the website. This week I came across another cool idea around end-of-day gratitudes. The idea is that at night, our brains are doing subconscious creative processing. If we end the day thinking about what didn’t get done, the frustrating interactions we had and what’s not going right, that’s what we are macerating on while we sleep. If, on the other hand, we take a few minutes to write or just consider the things we did get done, our positive interactions and what’s going right, it gives our minds a positive platform from which to create in the night. Free creativity! What a great resource to solve challenges and innovate. It’s so nice to start the day feeling ahead of the 8-ball.
I hope you try it and have a wonderful — and creative — week.
All my best,
Claire