Stress. It’s all too common in today’s society. Sometimes stressful situations are thrust upon us and sometimes we put ourselves into stressful situations.
What do you do to help calm yourself down and motivate yourself when you are facing tough times? When you just have to plow through and get though to the other side?
There are many situations that we face where phrases or sayings help motivate us to take that first step into the unknown.
You know those stressful situations that everyone seems to go through as rite-of-passages? Situations such as:
- The job interview where you desperately need the job.
- When you have butterflies in your stomach right before you ask out that pretty girl/handsome guy. Or worse, before meeting up with a blind date.
- Right before you walk into a room full of strangers. (Who you just know are going to be funnier, cooler and much better-looking than you)
- When you get up to give an important speech in front of a bunch of VIPs (or ANY speech in front of ANY one)
- When you go into salary negotiations or when you are ready to ask for a raise.
- When you go into the boss’s office and hand in your 2-week notice. (The butterflies are fighting with exhilaration here)
- Right before you go into the doctor’s or dentist’s office
- For some writers, right before you hit the ‘Publish” or ‘Send’ button on your first article.
- In any scary, stressful or first-time situation you find yourself.
Motivational sayings and phrases have power. They have the power to push you through your fears and calm yourself down in times of stress.
Inspired by this post at MetaFilter, here are some common motivational phrases from people who face similar stressful situations. They tell themselves:
- “Ok. Deep breath. Shoulders back, head up. You can do this. Go!”
- “Don’t panic. You can do this!”
- “Don’t fuck this up.”
- “They can’t eat me.”
- “I’m not afraid to die.”
- “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone-it! people like me!”
- “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
- “What’s the worst that can happen?”
- “Will this matter in 5 minutes, 5 days or 5 years?”
- “Help me Jesus.”
- “Time to put on your big girl pants.”
- “I am a river… I flow.”
- “Never give up, never surrender!”
- “C’mon, you can do *anything* for an hour.”
- “Millions of people do this every day. I can do this, too.”
- “What’s the worst that can happen?”
- “Let’s just get it over with. 3-2-1 GO!”
- “It’s gonna be alright.”
- “Proceed and be bold.”
- “Go ahead and kill me, but I doubt you will succeed where so many others have failed.”
- “No one cares about you.”
I had a pretty stressful morning at work the other day. You know the ones I’m talking about - the one where it’s Monday morning and you had a hard enough time motivating yourself to get up to go to work and then something happens and you wonder why you just don’t walk out the door? The temptation is SO strong, but you know that while the momentary thrill of quitting on the spot would be SO wonderful, but you just have to tough it out because you have long-term plans and like to eat.
In those kind of situations, my go-to phrase is always “This, too shall pass”. I’m old enough and have had enough experiences in my life to realize that nothing lasts forever. This phrase helps me to put stressful situations into perspective. I repeat this phrase to myself and the feelings of wanting to walk out the door slowly dissipate. I can then manage to get through another day.
It would be so easy to give in to the voice of our fears when we are facing difficult or stressful situations. The problem with giving in though is that if you give in and admit defeat, you start to let other fears creep into your life and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In your own mind you are telling yourself that you are not strong enough to beat the fear back and you give in to it. You don’t ask the girl/guy out. You don’t ask for the job or the raise. In fact, you don’t even ask for the job. You have fears about giving that speech or going to the doctors and when you give into the fears, your life becomes just a little smaller.
Other fears start to surface and soon enough, you are fearful of any stressful situation and your confidence becomes nil.
That’s why it’s so important to have a couple of phrases that will push through your fear in stressful situations in order to motivate yourself and strengthen your confidence muscles.
If you don’t have a motivational phrase that works for you, use any of the one’s here or find one that really works for you. Have a couple for various situations.
Another one of my favourite motivational phrases, when I’m really scared to do something even when I know that I have to do it because it will most likely help me, is “I CAN DO THIS!” (Yes, I shout it out. You have to say it with passion and conviction. Clenching your fists also helps). I vividly remembering using this phrase the first time I walked into a nightclub where they were teaching salsa dancing. I wanted to learn how to salsa dance and no one would take classes with me. I also had to use it the first time I showed up at the nightclub to dance on a Friday night alone. Talk about a scary and stressful situation!
Depending on the situation, I’ll also say to myself “I’ll handle it“. This one is really useful when you are lacking confidence and are scared of the outcome of taking an action. Knowing that I’ll handle, to the best of my ability, any result that happens usually calms me down enough to take the necessary step in spite of my fears.
This is a great one, too (if you have a good memory):
The Bene Gesserit (from Dune) Litany against fear:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
How do you motivate yourself? What phrases or sayings do you use to motivate yourself to push through your fears in stressful situations? Share with us by leaving a comment. Thanks!
Related Posts:
1. An Important Exercise To Help You Create The Life You Want
2. The Secret Stress Buster No One Dares Tell You About – Guest Post
3. From Homeless To The Infopreneur – Guest Post
4. Warning: Following These 5 Tips May Get You Out Of Your Rut
5. How To Stop Thinking And Start Doing – Guest Post
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