Uevolve career coach Lucinda Harlow reveals the secret of using your ‘anchors’…
‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year…’ The twinkly lights come out and we are transported into a land heavy laden with snow. Jolly carol singers spread good cheer amid steaming mulled wine. Happy families snuggle down to play games. Stockings hang expectantly by the hearth and in the distance there’s a whisper of sleigh bells ‘a ringin’.
Something magical has happened… what, though? Because back in the real world, does Christmas look like this? No, but we’ve entered into a season loaded with ‘psychological anchors’ so compelling we find ourselves doing things we’d never normally contemplate with good cheer. We become masters at filtering out all the iffy memories. Kids fighting in lumps over Xbox? Gone! Credit card bills revealing yards of too-easy ‘one click’ purchases? Gone! All thanks to those powerful Christmas ‘anchors’.
So why is that of any use at all come a Monday morning in January?
Psychological anchors are things that happen on the outside that trigger how you think and feel on the inside. So shops play White Christmas and Mistletoe and Wine on a loop because they know it creates feelings of warmth and generosity – aka the urge to spend. Cunning aren’t they?
Again, why should they matter at work?
Well, pull off the trick of creating your OWN psychological triggers and you can overcome tons of emotional career obstacles. Yup, you really can be the person who enjoys doing a key presentation to a sea of faces and reaping some real career joy.
Your five step guide to creating career anchors
- Decide the one quality that would be most helpful to you at work, such as unbeatable self confidence.
- Close your eyes and concentrate on a specific time when you have experienced this great feeling.
- Turn up the volume on all the sensory elements of this memory. Make everything about the look, feel, smell, sound and even tastes associated with the memory bigger, brighter, bolder and totally in focus.
- When you’re really and truly back in that moment you have to create a trigger in the here and now. You do that by linking those powerful and positive emotions to your body in some way. One good (and discrete) method is to squeeze the tips of your forefinger and thumb together. Practice this step LOTS until that movement triggers those feelings.
- When you’re in a workplace situation where you need your anchor use the trigger you’ve created and voila! An unbeatable all-year-round Christmas present for your career.
About Lucinda
With a strong corporate background, Lucinda has worked at a senior level with a series of investment houses and blue chip companies in the City and West End. Having built a strong coaching practice Lucinda is in demand for one-to-one coaching and professional presentations and as an expert voice in media interviews.
Lucinda Harlow, Executive Coach
0208 408 1008
07958 943607
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/lucinda-harlow/43/7a3/557
