Addressing Professional Challenges In The Present Tense

Whether you are running a well established company, or whether you have just started up a brand new business, people are aware that investing in the self in this manner will still bring challenges. Some of them can be anticipated to an extent, especially ones that have been researched as known variables which can impact the endeavor. In these cases, taking a proactive approach to challenges can be ideal.

This can include practices like:

• Conducting initial risk assessments
• Evaluating the level of engagement that is available with existing clients and employees
• Developing a business plan structure that can make allowances for these known variables
• Identifying factors for change in the target demographic

While these are all sound business practices for developing and running a company, they do not always fully address some of the emotional and mental variables that an owner might be feeling within themselves.

 

Manifest Versus Imagined

At Technalink, we have found that even addressing these possible challenges on a tangible level is not always enough to really eliminate the core of the issue. As mentioned earlier, planning is ideal, but the trick is to:

• Make the plan
• Implement it, and walk away
• Stay focused in moment for whatever may arise

The obvious reaction to this is often, “why am I bothering to make a plan, if I’m just going to leave it to its own devices?”. Part of understanding the process is also in understanding the part that fear can make in our decisions. One good analogy is to think of the business plan as though it were an insurance plan. Just as with insurance, we make sure that the protocols are in place, and then we let go.

Most people don’t walk around stressing about their car insurance, and the same should go for the potential challenges that a business may face.

A secondary point comes from the fact that the majority of all stress is based in circumstances that are in the future. As a result, the fear and even suffering that we experience personally and professionally also comes from this same place. When we try to control an unknown future, we are left exerting energy that could be more productive in the present tense.

 

Looking At What Is Real

This also means that addressing professional challenges in the present tense can reduce factors for overwhelm and burnout. Instead of expending thoughts and energy on something that may not even impact the company, owners can instead stay focused on the challenges as they arise, and this makes them much more manageable.

One final thought that should be mentioned about challenges in the present tense, and this can often become a key aspect in professional growth. When we spend too much time solving unknown challenges that may arise at some future time, we are also sending out an energy to others that is essentially asking for this challenge to come to pass. In this way, our thoughts and energy create a cycle, but we also have the ability to turn this cycle into a positive one.

This also means that instead of wasting our personal resources on an unknown fear, our mindful focus in the present tense can also allow for better positive future outcomes, since this becomes our aware intent. This also lets us actually handle present tense challenges with grace and creativity, since we have freed ourselves up for action in the now, and not just thoughts about the future.