Today I was originally going to talk about something else, but in the past week I had several coaching clients that were all struggling with how they feel about their job or career. Apparently, there was something about being off for a week or two around the holiday and then suddenly being back to work on January 3rd that triggered it. 

For some, the abrupt shift from days of leisure to the 9-5 structure that caused them to feel unfocused and overwhelmed.

For others, being back in the routine was a harsh reminder that they don’t like their job or their career path or their business much anymore. (And yes, much as many corporate types might fantasize about it, even successful entrepreneurs sometimes struggle with not liking or being into what they do anymore).

And because this was such a pervasive theme AND because I keep seeing all the headlines around record job resignations, I wanted to talk today about ‘taking charge of your feelings.’

Now before we get into it, I have a little disclaimer. This is not about pretending to feel positive when you really feel crappy. That isn’t true and it doesn’t work. This is learning how to take control of your emotional health. And it’s super helpful whether you’re someone who struggles with impatience (like I used to), if you tend toward pessimism or self-doubt or judgement or defensiveness or insecurity. 

And by the way, we all do at times. So, I think this is going to be super helpful for everyone in both their career and life, so let’s dive in. 

Before we get into what’s behind our emotions or mood, let’s talk about the impact our emotions have on well everything. Our life, our relationships, our performance, our health. All of it. 

And for this, a super helpful tool is called The Mood Elevator. 

It was developed by Larry Senn, a leading organizational development consultant. And he’s written a book by the same name, so if you find this concept of interest you might want to check it out.

As an overview, this is a visual tool that looks at our emotional state like an elevator with different floors. On the lower floors are things like impatience, pessimism, irritation, worry, anxiety, burnout, stress, defensiveness, insecurity. 

And on the upper floors are things like gratitude, creativity, resourcefulness, hopefulness, optimism, humor, patience, understanding.

The idea with the Mood Elevator is to first understand the relationship between the “level” of your mood and your behavior or performance. And then to learn how to elevate your mood to a ‘higher’ floor if needed.

Because if you’re on the lower floors of that elevator and feeling things like anxiety, stress, insecurity or irritation you can see how that will impact what you do and how you show up around others. It might affect the things you say, how you interact with others, how you treat yourself maybe by overeating or not sleeping or whatever. It might also be the catalyst behind other unhelpful behaviors like procrastination, perfectionism, fear and hiding. 

On the other hand, if you’re on the upper floors and feeling things like patience, understanding, gratitude and optimism, you can see how that would have you showing up completely differently. Your relationships with others would thrive. Your productivity and work quality would be great. And you’re likely to stay on plan when it comes to your self-care.

The idea basically is to stay out of the mood basement and get to a higher mood floor.

For

Do you have a question you'd like to have addressed on the podcast? Want to give us some feedback or suggestions? Click here to send us a text.

Follow us on Instagram @thepurposefulcareer.
Learn more about Next Level, our monthly membership at https://www.thepurposefulcareer.com/nextlevel.