If that headline caught your attention, it’s likely you suffer from some form of anxiety. I am here to tell you that, because you are experiencing those feelings, you’re actually becoming better at what you do. You’re becoming smarter, stronger, and more capable of performing your job and growing your business.
Personally, I sometimes want to curl up in a ball in a tight corner of a dark room. My anxiety is triggered when I'm overstimulated, when too many things happening in my life at the same time.
I'll admit it, stress can be painful. But there is a brighter side to it. Below is a list of 5 reasons why you shouldn’t worry about being anxious.
1. STRESS MAKES YOU SMARTER
Stress is one of the things in our life that pushes us to think differently. To analyze situations with a new air of creativity. It pushes our intelligence to the next step.
We often think that geniuses have it easy. Their brain is the way it is because they were born like that. In reality, they put in years of work to develop their craft. They chose to seek out masters to learn their area of expertise. They may have placed themselves in stressful situations, or maybe stress found them. But they pressed forward to the esteemed level of genius.
You too can develop a more matured thought process. By introducing yourself to new challenges or ideas, or having mentors and teachers in your life that can push you, your brain will begin to react differently to situations. Through the experience of stress, your brain can rewire for the better.
2. PRESSURE DRIVES AN ACTIVE MINDSET
So much of what I have built in my life today is a result of small decisions I made years ago. Instead of allowing boredom to take over, I gave myself a project with an end goal. As my Grandma said, “I don’t believe it when people say they are bored. They just need to get up and do something”.
Instead of relying on the world to give me something to do, I came up with my own fun that I knew would be practical one day. I started working with computers. Building them, breaking them, video editing, photoshop, and anything else I could get my hands on to stay busy.
Being active and doing is one of the best fixes for anxiety.
3. WORRYING OVER CLIENTS MEANS YOU CARE
When you put your love into something, you want the best for it. When something goes wrong in a project or client relationship, it can hurt. Your heart stiffens as you feel the pang of failure. The result of this pain is twofold. First, you will do better next time. You will learn from the pain and (hopefully) won’t make the same mistake twice. Second, in the process of recovering from an error, you are offered the chance to reflect and become a better person in life and business.
4. ANXIETY IS A REMINDER THAT WE AREN’T PERFECT
Anxiety reminds us that life’s tough. Everyone goes through something difficult in their life. As entrepreneurs, we often have to force positivity when in reality we’re self-conscious and worried! With experience, we learn how to observe the stress instead of reacting to it and letting it take over. Reminders that we’re just another human being keep us on track to treating our clients, business partners, and all of the people as human beings too, with respect and kindness.
EVEN, when we don’t want to; our experience reminds us that life is tough for everyone. Don’t act like a jerk when you’re going through the easier side of things. Use your experience in anxiety to motivate you to BRING PEOPLE UP to your level.
5. TOUGH TIMES MAKE US STRONGER
By eliminating stressors for our children or employees, we shelter them from a reality that life is hard. When things become easy, we become complacent and thus less inventive, less productive, and less awesome. I often suggest doing things that are OUT of our comfort zone. Going to a networking event, approaching that girl at the bar, or going bungee jumping are a few things that might cause a little adrenaline spike of fear. But it will remind you that you can do anything. It will also let you guide your own personal adventure. When you enter a situation you’re afraid of, your senses tighten and you become more aware. Following the event, you’ll learn from what you experienced.
If you feel stagnant in life, find something that scares you and do it. Even if you aren’t stagnant, find something that scares you every day and DO IT. It will remind you of your humanity, it’ll make you smarter and stronger, it’ll keep you busy and less stressed when the stuff really does hit the fan.
