Thursday, April 26, 2007

Fear Menu

Here's the daily menu of workplace fears (pick one or more).


Fear of:


Embarrassment

Getting fired.

Being ostracized.

The in-basket.

Speaking before a group.

Speaking.

Meeting a new boss.

Seeing the old boss.

Failure.

Success.

Mediocrity.

The secretary.

Missing a deadline.

Being teased or harassed.

Getting injured.

The IT team.

Not knowing crucial information.

Wasting time.

Handling new equipment.

Not getting promoted.

Getting promoted.

Being reassigned.

Being reprimanded or suspended.

Consultants.

Lawyers.

Accountants.

Customers.

Losing documents.

Finding documents.

Dealing with an obnoxious boss or co-worker.

Being ensnared in illegal or unethical activities.

Using poor grammar or improper pronunciation.

Not projecting an appropriate image.

Making a decision.

Neglecting personal responsibilities.

Devoting a lifetime to a soulness entity that has no loyalty but possesses the capacity to drain the energy and creativity from once vibrant human beings so they eventually resemble brain-dead zombies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I look forward to reading your blog every day, but this is the first time I've commented. Ironically I have been contemplating my own hesitation in leaving comments on blogs I find valuable and thought-provoking. Your post on fear rocketed me into action...what the heck. Really, there is nothing noteworthy going on in my psyche...just irrational fear. Fear of undiscovered typos, grammatically incorrect sentences, illogical thought processees (is that even a word), ahh the shame of it all.

Michael Wade said...

Annette,

It is an honor that you're reading the blog. I believe a great many of us are restrained by various fears that in one respect are irrational but are very real to us. I've known combat veterans who are afraid of public speaking. One approach is to recognize whenever we start slipping into our fear mode and then quickly place the fear on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being "No way it will happen" and 10 being "It will definitely occur." What we often find is we objectively rate it as maybe a 2 or 3 but we are worrying about the event as if it rates a 9 or 10. Winston Churchill said that in his life he'd worried about a great many things, some of which actually happened. Most of the things we worry about will not take place or will be minor if they do. [Book recommendation: Worry by Edward M. Hallowell of Harvard Medical School.] Thanks for visiting and please comment again!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your wise words and the book recommendation. I'll order it right now.

Michael Wade said...

You're welcome, Annette. I think you'll like the book.