19 Aug 7 Science-Backed Ways Successful People Stay Calm
via Forbes by Tony Ewing
It’s no secret many successful people can remain calm in almost any situation. In fact, the secret is how they actually do so. From a scientific perspective, remaining calm under duress is called, “cognitive control”. And, having an abundance of it, successful people are able to make the right moves at the right times.
In effect, cognitive control means aligning actions, thoughts and emotions so as to know when to follow the rules and when to break them. But how can we lesser mortals do this without becoming stressed about trying to remain calm?
The secret is that greater cognitive control is learnable. Yet, the key to mastering it is dealing with anxiety. At the end of the day, even a tiny bit of stress disruptsour cognitive control.
That’s where behavioral science offers some insight. By observing the habits of successful people, we can see where they overlap with strategies for remaining calm, based upon research. Here are 7 such habits to watch out for:
- Don’t try to calm down: instead, get excited. Intuitive? I know. Only not… Most of us assume our best response to a stressful situation is to force ourselves to calm down. Yet, behavioral scientists from Harvard Business School have found that’s a bad idea. They note our stress often stems from worrying bad things will happen—even if they’re unlikely. In that case, forcing calm doesn’t remove these bad thoughts it just buries them. Bad thoughts and fears get deflected and allow stress to build up. A better response is to get excited about the possibility positive things will happen. In other words, within reason, anticipating good outcomes rather than bad ones generates genuine, calmness. Of course, the thing to remember here is preserving cognitive control—that is, one’s cool head—and not getting overly excited either. That makes dealing with stress easier and more effective.
- Understand your multitasking limits. Of course, we’re not all equal insofar as our natural abilities to remain calm. As a result, it’s a good idea to know our limits. Indeed, researchers from Case Western have foundbetter multitaskers are better at handling stress. This is particularly the case when they face stress from others’s criticisms. How it works though, is fascinating… One might think multitaskers handle stress better because they can juggle many things at once. Not quite. The scientists found multitaskers are able to remain calm mainly by doing something called, ‘over-claiming’. That is, when stressed and hit with criticism, they boast—and this makes them calm down. That is so, socially unacceptable (if done audibly). But it works! By comparison, people weak in multitasking (uh, ’singletaskers’?) boast less when criticized and internalize more of their anxiety as a result. The important takeaway is to know where you stand as a multitasker. Suppose you’re organizing a night out with a bunch of colleagues. If you can sort out the check, figure out who’s short and suffer jabs about picking a bad venue—all the while boasting about your firstborn—you’re a natural at using this method. Otherwise, try upping your boasting game—quietly…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE
#happiness #happy #calm #success