Operating at a Deficit
If we’re not paying close attention to our mindset, we can walk around for a good portion of the day doing what I call operating at a deficit.
Episode Transcription
Intro:
If we’re not paying close attention to our mindset, we can walk around for a good portion of the day doing what I call operating at a deficit. Let’s talk about how you can prevent that from happening. Here we go.
Main:
If you think about a typical Workday, it’s easy for us to move through the day focused on all the things that are not going the way that we want them to go.
Our mind is really good at drawing our attention to areas of concern, or anticipating stressful situations, or focusing on things we’re not particularly excited about doing.
Maybe we're thinking about a conversation we don’t want to have, we’re replaying something that we could have done better, or we’re looking at our list of things to do and feeling like there’s no way we’re going to get through it all.
A simple example and one of the areas where we’re really susceptible to this kind of thought pattern is at the end of our workday.
Think about how often you end your workday by looking at all the things that you didn’t accomplish, and the things that didn’t go well. For many of us that’s how we end every workday.
And when we think that way, we carry around this idea that we’re constantly behind, and constantly operating at a deficit.
This kind of thinking has a very powerful hold over us moment to moment throughout the day.
One of the things that reinforces this kind of mindset is the way we talk to one another about our work. Think about how you respond to someone who says something like, “So how’s work going for you?”
For many of us the first things that comes to mind aren’t the things that are going well.
Instead, what we generally say is something like “Ya know, I’ve got so much on my plate right now, I’m slammed and busy, and this or that is making my life harder.”
And when we talk to each other about work this way it creates this sort of implicit agreement that we’re all behind, work is hard, and that the best way to relate to one another is to focus on how we’re operating from that deficit.
We perpetuate this idea that this is the norm, that it has to be this way.
And when we consistently use words like this over and over, and when we focus on what’s not going well, we train our brain to live and function with this as our default mindset
And when we live with that as our default mindset, that means our ACTIONS and our emotions correspond with those thoughts.
We feel tired, we’re short tempered, we’re unhappy, and our work and our interactions with other people end up suffering as a result of it.
We're not confident, we're less motivated, we’re much less productive, and ultimately not as content or happy as we could be.
But it turns out that we actually can turn this around by shifting our focus from operating at a deficit to embracing a mindset that's focused on progress and GOOD things that have happened.
At a moment to moment level, we actually can make a choice each day to shift our focus from those things that haven’t gone well to the things that have - so moving from living at a deficit to experiencing a surplus.
Now this is not an easy thing to do, because it takes practice and it takes a willingness to practice. But if you want to start to make this shift, there are two things I’d recommend you do as a starting point.
Number one is to practice catching yourself in the moments when you’re operating at a deficit, and be intentional about inserting a new thought.
We’re so used to being fixated on all the challenges we face each day that it’s become a habit for us. In every situation we encounter our brain almost immediately takes us to our old way of thinking - which is focusing on all the deficits - because it's familiar and it's what we’ve always done.
So what we have to do is get in the habit of pausing every now and then to take a self-inventory of how we’re thinking. Then when you catch yourself thinking a certain way that you don’t like or that isn’t suiting you, then you flip that thought and insert one that does suit you.
So instead of heading into a meeting thinking about all the things you could be doing with this meeting time, you flip that thought to how the meeting might give you a chance to catch up with a colleague.
Or instead of internalizing a piece of feedback you got on some of your work, you flip that thought and consider how that comment can help shape your approach to that work the next time.
These are simple things to do but that’s the point: catch yourself in the moment, and follow a thought you don’t want with one that’s more productive. And there’s a lot of science that says these small flips are very powerful.
Number two is to focus on how you’re thinking at the two most critical inflection points in your workday - which are the start of your day and the end of your day.
These two points are critical drivers of your day to day work experience.
In terms of starting your day, what you want to focus on is setting appropriate expectations. For many of us, one of the first things we do each day is create a list of things we want to accomplish that day - and on that list we put everything we can think of or everything that’s currently in our work queue.
But here’s the problem with that: on most days, we don't end making it even halfway through that list. Despite the fact that we know from experience that we rarely get everything on our list done.
We still come into each day and set ourselves up to move through the day with an unrealistic expectation of what we can actually do, and we end up looking at the day as having been unproductive instead of focusing on things we accomplished.
So one way to start to flip from operating at a deficit is to be realistic about what we can accomplish in a day. Instead of starting your day by staring at that long list, pull two things off of it that are your highest priorities and set a goal to get those things done - and keep that as your singular focus.
You probably will get more than those two things done that day, but the idea is to set an expectation that’s achievable so that you’re not constantly feeling behind. This is a simple mindset technique that works very very well.
Then at the end of the day, the goal is to spend some time focused on things you did accomplish and that went well. We generally leave the day frustrated and feeling anxious because what we’ve been focusing on were all the things we weren’t able to get done.
But what you can do instead is think about all the things that you were able to accomplish. I’m talking about 30 seconds or a minute of your time to take stock of:
What you did cross off your list
Positive interactions that you had, or
Value that you were able to contribute
So before you hurriedly decide to end your workday and rush on to the next thing, revisit some of the things that went well for you that day.
There’s some great science to back this up that says that even if we do these small things every day for a couple of minutes, just even a couple of minutes, our brain starts to shift to a more positive outlook. It helps us build confidence, we’re more productive, and we feel happier at work.
So here’s your takeaway: over the next few days practice focusing on how you’re thinking as you enter and exit the day. At the beginning of the day, set expectations that you can achieve, and then at the end of the day, take stock of things that went well.
I think you’ll be surprised at how these two things alone will lead to a very positive shift in your mindset.
Go have a great workday.