Dealing With Evaluation Pressure
EVALUATION PRESSURE typically manifests itself as worry. You might worry about the quality of your work, your personal interactions in the office, or your most recent presentation or report. Worry creates a negative focus. It puts you in the mindset of looking for problems. It makes decision-making difficult, decreases efficiency, and makes you feel generally overwhelmed.
Worry does serve a purpose, though. It alerts you to problems, prepares you for action, and helps you develop coping mechanisms through “rehearsal” of the worrisome event. Worry is most useful when it leads to a successful approach for coping with pressure. At all other times, it is pointless and a waste of energy.
Evaluation Pressure
Here the goal of engaging in the SBRT process is to use the energy associated with worry to create a successful approach to the problem at hand. At the same time, we also want to use the SBRT process to maintain an orientation to the present that will help offset the worry.
1. Stop
Worry puts you into a planning mode; therefore, the most typical cues for worry include rumination, obsessive planning, concentration problems, predicting the worst, a racing mind, fear, a racing heart, insomnia, nervous habits, and restlessness.
2. Breathe
When we are going to be evaluated, we tend to obsess about either one of two things:
• What will happen in the future
• What has happened in the past
This step’s major goal is thus to stay in the present; you want to focus your attention on things that are happening now and put the past and future aside. Luckily this “present orientation” is the goal of every mindfulness technique; therefore, any mindfulness technique is appropriate when you are under evaluation pressure.
The Use of Categorization
In practicing mindfulness for evaluation pressure, you also want to use a categorization technique that will help you maintain your present orientation. Any mindfulness practice requires focusing your attention on present sensations and trying to maintain a passive disregard for any extraneous thoughts that arise. Here, this passive disregard will be difficult because your thoughts are likely to include plans to help you deal with the evaluation (this is jumping ahead to the Take Action step).
Mindfulness Technique With Categorization: Example
The following is a description of what may occur in your mind during the practice of a mindfulness technique with categorization. Notice the labels “memory” and “fantasy.”
Feeling the in-breath as it comes through my nose; feeling the outbreath as my chest falls; “My boss is going to hate my presentation —Fantasy”; “The last presentation was nerve-wracking—Memory”; attention on breathing; feeling the in-breath as it comes through my nose; feeling the out-breath as my stomach deflates; “It’s so difficult to print out slides from my computer—Memory”; “What if I run out of picture-quality paper?—Fantasy” [and so on].
To counter the effect of these thoughts, put each arising thought into either one of two categories:
• Memory—thoughts about the past
• Fantasy—thoughts about the future
Then discard the thought.
Remember, the point of this second step is to establish and maintain a present orientation. Any thought that draws your attention to the past or the future thus should be categorized and then discarded.
3. Rewrite
Worry tends to create a self-focus. When you are under this type of pressure, be especially careful not to use the rewriting step to criticize yourself. The goal is to assess the accuracy of your thoughts. Do not distort the evidence. If you hold a negative belief about yourself, ask, “Is it in my best interest to hold this belief?”
As usual, notice automatic thoughts. Words to watch out for are must, have to, and ought. You will probably find yourself thinking of things you “ought” to do or “ought” to have done for the evaluation. Just as with anger pressure, you may find you are “making plans” and fueling the chain of thoughts. Be careful that you are not contributing to inaccuracies or distortions.
Be sure to identify distortions. Evaluation pressure tends to prompt all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, mental filter, discounting the positive, and fortune-telling. Remember, anything you think might happen during the evaluation is fortune-telling.
Finally, challenge your thoughts. As with other types of pressure, the following are good questions to use: What is the evidence for this? Is there another way of seeing this? Is it in my best interest to hold this belief? After assessing the accuracy of the thoughts, also ask these questions: What is the worst that could happen? Is this under my control? Often evaluation worry is exacerbated by the thought that the outcome will be extreme. If you actually identify “the worst that could happen,” you will likely see that, in most cases, you have the resources to handle the worst possible scenario. Engage in self-talk, and talk back with positives and accurate answers.
4. Take Action
Identify the possible solutions. As in the case of anger, there are times to act and times to “let it go” (by engaging in breathing and rewriting). The decision of whether or not to take action is made by answering the question “Is this under my control?” When something is out of our control, worrying becomes a waste of energy and distracts from the things we can control.
For example, Barbara’s annual report was sent to the national office this afternoon. Company representatives took it home with them this evening and will be reviewing the report in a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. If Barbara is worried that a particular figure is unclear, she can take action and fax a new figure to the national office before the meeting; thus she can control the situation. On the other hand, if she is worried about the content of an entire section of the report, the situation may now be beyond her control. This would be the time to “let it go.” The report is already in, and this would be a bad idea to change it, even if she created the time to do so. Her time is better spent focusing on the present and turning her attention to another project.
If the Situation Is Under Your Control
If you feel that you can take sufficient control of the situation and choose to act, follow these steps:
1. Reevaluate the necessity of taking action by asking, “How important is the thing I’m worrying about? How much energy is worth expending on this worry?” This question will help you eliminate the unimportant. For example, in answering this question, Barbara may realize that the figure is clearly explained in the text and revising it is not worth company time.
2. If you still decide to take action, try to take action immediately. To speed the process, make a list of possible solutions to the problem and then list the pros and cons of each solution. Next, take some action, even if it is small. Writing out a plan and initiating that plan will help alleviate worry.
If you find it is impossible to take immediate action, then use writing, distraction, and mindfulness to keep you in the present. For example, we often find ourselves vulnerable to worry before we go to bed at night, in which case we cannot take action immediately. To deal with this problem (and ward off insomnia), try this technique:
1. Write down what you are worrying about and how you can take action. This will provide you with a plan and leave no reason to obsess about the topic of worry.
2. Distract yourself with something unrelated to the topic of worry, such as reading a chapter in a book.
3. Use deep breathing and mindfulness techniques right before getting into bed.
If the Situation Is Not Under Your Control
“Let go” when the worry is not under your control, and use writing, distraction, and mindfulness to keep you in the present. Try the following:
1. Write down what you are worrying about. Also, record your answers to the questions that helped you decide the situation is beyond your control. This will reinforce the fact that the worry is a waste of energy.
2. Distract yourself with something unrelated to the topic of worry; in addition, use deep breathing and mindfulness techniques to keep you in the present.
Keep in mind that your imagination can serve as a distraction to offset the worry. Simply imagine a positive, happy outcome for the stressful situation. Your body does not know the difference between what you are imagining and what is real; so instead of worrying about a negative outcome, specifically imagine a positive outcome.
As we have seen in this chapter, evaluation creates worry. Worry can be useful if it helps you create a plan for action; otherwise, it is a waste of energy. You can use the SBRT technique to maintain a focus on the present, to decide whether to act on the source of the worry, and to help you “let it go” if the situation is beyond your control.