Resilience Tip: How to Release Striving at Work

Over the next few months, I will be focusing on a topic that is important for all of us, no matter where we are in life: resilience. Resilience is a hot topic right now as we continue to pivot from all the twists and turns caused by pandemic. On a personal note, I view resilience as the spectrum of growth from facing the “hard stuff” in life to discovering and integrating new ways of being with life. I recently completed a resilience course for coaches offered by Presence-Based Coaching. I will share a personal discovery with the hope that it will support your growth.

Participants were asked to identify a personal resilience challenge they would like to work on. My resilience challenge was (and still is) to release the habit of striving and to experience presence and ease while working. From my observation, efficiency is a common value of our American society. Over the years, I developed a tendency to push myself that extra mile at work. How did my habit show up in the office? I squeezed one more meeting in an already packed work schedule. I drafted one more email when it was time to leave. Sometimes I was attentive and other times I was oblivious to the impact striving had on my health.

My habit traveled with me as I worked from home during the pandemic. I initially thought that virtual work would naturally create pockets of pause. Yet, I continued being absorbed in virtual meetings and projects as I experienced virtual multi-tasking and declining work breaks in the pursuit of completing to-do lists. I bet you can relate to my experience. So how am I navigating striving? Through presence.

Presence is an internal state that creates awareness in the moment. It encompasses what is happening inside us as well as our physical environment. 

When I experience striving at work, my body starts tightening like a fist. My thoughts speed up. I feel anxious and drained. I attempt to escape my experience by making more effort. This approach depletes my energy and creates a sense of emptiness. 

While attending the course, I decided to take a different approach to this habit. I decided to become intimate with striving and let go of the urge and effort to banish it. When it shows up at work, I feel it in my body and track my thoughts. Striving creates a combined constriction in my heart, stomach, and forehead. The texture of my thinking is dense, narrow, worrisome, and fixated on the future. This intimacy causes a subtle shift inside. My body and mind become naturally calm. I recenter, move forward, and apply different practices – micro-breaks, body movements, and reprioritizing work – to help build my resilience. 

What happens when you strive? How can presence support your resilience?

Let’s start a resilience dialogue together. Shoot me an email to patrickchapman@inwardactioncoaching.com and let me know your thoughts on this topic. 

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