Years ago, when I was in the corporate world, managing 50 employees, I thought I had it rough. At the time, I felt like my entire world could crumble any day starting with losing my job and I put myself under that stress 7 days a week.

When I decided to go home at night from work was entirely arbitrary as I couldn’t actually ever get to a point in that job where I thought my job was completed. No, there was always something that wasn’t getting done or done right that needed my attention. Why did I think this? Because my boss, who was just passing the buck down, was constantly telling me this. In addition, I witnessed a colleague manager get “pushed out” before he could get fired just a few months after I started the same job myself.

I remember vividly trying to get to sleep at night, lying there and rolling over and over in my head all of the things at work that could sink me. I would sleep lightly and wake up often and sometimes get out of bed to have a “drink” to knock me out. I’d wake up just as anxious as I went to sleep and went to work like a zombie. I lived this way for 4 years and it almost killed me.

Looking back, the funny thing was, I received awards, compliments, and plenty of recognition for turning in good numbers and stats for my responsibilities. Some that our location had never achieved before. But none of that sunk in and I always felt like I was 2 bad moves away from being canned.

We actually had a couple of acronyms I had heard from the personnel manager that I could never forget. CLM and CEM. Career Limiting Move and Career Ending Move. These were joked about among all of us but inside, I had taken them to heart.

Today, I look back on that whole adventure and how, if I were put in the same position today with the mindset I have now, how would I be different. The truth is, and was, I was never in danger of losing my job…ever.

Somehow I had blinded myself to the fact that there were far less competent people doing my job all over the company who had somehow managed to survive for decades there watching the calendar for the day they can retire.

Somehow, I minimized my accomplishments and maximized what I didn’t get done up to my standards of quality for a job well done. I had created a warped sense of reality in my mind that my body was constantly being triggered to respond to by releasing stress chemicals. Stress is a state created by these chemicals as a mechanism to be more focused and boost energy for temporary and short periods of time to get more done when overwhelmed. The stress response is actually a valuable thing when used sparingly. But I abused it.

So, how would I be different if I were in that same situation with my mental toughness mindset today?

1. I would constantly remind myself of the truth of things and seek to find more of it. The truth was, that I was really good at my job, others noticed it, and I was on a path to be promoted if I wanted to. The truth would have set me free from all of that.

2. I might get the anxious stress response at times when things were pressured…but now I would be able to bring myself right back to calm after the incident was over. Back then, I had zero control over my body through my thoughts. Today, I allow the feelings or response, take appropriate action for the REASON WHY I got that response…and then command my nervous system response to go back to normal.

3. I would probably work just as hard as I did back then…but I would be doing it for a different reason: Purely because I like working hard and get great satisfaction from a job well done. I’m like this today in my own business… and I smile and am extremely grateful for being able to work on something so purposeful now… so I’m sure I would do it in that environment just the same. It would not be because I’m afraid to lose my job if I don’t.

Same job, different Craig. There’s a lot that I’ve learned since I left that job to do my own thing to create this type of mindset. Ultimately, it always comes down to how you look at things…

Perceptions and perspectives

I will write and post more videos here and put them in the Personal/Business category drop down on the right. If you want to see them when I create them, get on this list Personal/Business Mental Toughness

specifically for Personal/Business mental toughness.

Let’s do this,

Craig Sigl