Optimal Performance: Take Action
AFTER WE STOP, breathe, and rewrite, it is time for the fourth step in the SBRT process: Take Action. In taking action, we resolve the situation at hand. There are a number of steps for choosing a plan of action. At first, you may need to write out your options, but later this process will come to you more automatically.
Taking Action: Resolving the Situation
The step of taking action involves the following:
1. Identifying the problem to be solved
2. Generating and assessing possible solutions
3. Choosing a solution
4. Designing a plan of action
5. Doing something in your plan, even if it is only a small component
Keep in mind that doing something in your plan is the best way to ensure optimal energy management.
The Importance of Identifying the Problem
To take action, we need to see whether or not rewriting allowed us to separate the problem at hand from the “emotional hook”—the automatic thoughts that accompany a problem and obscure it. Emotional hooks escalate problems and interfere with our finding solutions to them. Sometimes it is the hook that needs addressing, not the situation. As the point of taking action is to deal with the problem itself (if necessary), we must define both it and the emotional hook if rewriting has not clarified the problem.
The following is a situation that requires separating the problem from the emotional hook. You have been waiting all day to meet with your boss and colleagues about a presentation scheduled for tomorrow. As your appointment time approaches, his secretary tells you that the meeting has been cancelled and that you should finalize the presentation on your own. You react angrily towards the secretary, your heart starts racing, and you begin to worry about whether the presentation will be up to par. Soon you are also brooding about the fact that you always keep your appointments, so others should do so as well. You leave work feeling upset and remain that way until late into the evening.
What is the problem and what is the emotional hook?
• Let us say that before giving a presentation, you have always obtained group feedback on your presentation material. You thus expected feedback from your boss and colleagues at the meeting; in fact, you were relying on it.
• Let us also say that your automatic train of thought ran something like this: “The boss is inconsiderate and unreliable. What if I make a fool of myself during the presentation? What if my pitch falls flat? I always rearrange my schedule for other people, but they never rearrange it for me. Jones got his meeting; why didn’t I get mine?”
Clearly, the problem is that you wanted the feedback and were relying on it. The emotional hook—replete with feelings of denial, self-doubt, and unfairness—did nothing but obscure the problem and worsen the situation. By separating the problem from the emotional hook, you are now in a better position to deal with the problem.
Problem Solving, Action Planning, and Doing
The balance of the Take Action process involves the following:
• Finding a solution to the problem. To do this, take these steps:
— First, identify as many possible solutions as you can.
— Next, consider the possibilities, listing the pros and cons for each solution.
— Finally, choose the most acceptable solution.
• Planning for action. Once you have chosen a solution, write up a plan of action. Be sure to divide the plan into reasonable, doable steps. At that time, take action.
• Taking action. Immediately do something, even if what you have chosen to do is only a small step.
For instance, let us return to the example above, in which you relied on feedback for your presentation. You might come up with these possibilities for solving the problem:
• As your boss is leaving work, explain the situation to get a meeting early the next morning.
• Appeal to the secretary, explaining the weight of the situation and attempting to get her to talk the boss into rescheduling a meeting.
• Enlist a group of coworkers and meet without the boss.
• Enlist one trusted colleague to critique the work.
• Go with what you have done and hope it works out.
Of the possible solutions, which seems the most practical and doable? To answer this question, you would list pros and cons for each solution. Next, you would decide which option has the most acceptable combination of pros and cons. Here, you might pick enlisting a trusted friend to critique the work because it provides the pros of obtaining feedback but only requires arrangements involving one person; the only con is making time for this prior to the presentation.
Now a written plan of action is in order. It should consist of small doable steps that include something that can be done immediately. For instance, to return to our example, let us say that, for various reasons, you decided to enlist a group of coworkers to critique the work. You might make this plan:
1. Write an email requesting an audience to critique your presentation sometime between now and three hours before the presentation.
2. Send the email to a number of people.
3. Once they reply, set up the meeting.
4. If no one replies before a certain time of day, move to calling individuals at home.
5. If phone calls are necessary, create a phone list.
Writing the email is a simple, doable step that gets the ball rolling toward solving the problem.
As we have seen in this chapter, Step 4 of the SBRT process is to take action. The process involves identifying the problem to be solved, generating and assessing possible solutions, choosing a solution, and designing a plan of action. Finally, the best way to ensure optimal energy management is to do something in your plan, even if it is only a small component.