1-800-525-0210 FREE + CONFIDENTIAL SUPPORT GO TO MASSLOMAP.ORG

LCLMAdmin

This author has written 205 articles

The Art of Interviewing

Anyone who has been on multiple job interviews will tell you that they are often anxiety provoking. Whether you love the job or hate it, you want the interview to go well and you want the employer to offer you the job (even if you decide you do not want the job). After all, we all want to be valued, appreciated, and wanted. The reality is you have to risk rejection if you want a competitive job. So how do you put yourself out there, get rejected, and still go on with confidence?

Read more

The Myth of Multitasking: Why doing less is better

There is a misguided belief that multitasking is a good idea. Basically it is thought that if you are able to do more than one thing at the same time, then you are able to get more done. Unfortunately, the reality of this is quite the opposite. Like most things, it might be helpful to examine this issue on a continuum. On one end you have tasks that need to happen at the same time (for example, breathing and walking) and at the other end you have tasks that should never happen together (for example, texting and driving).

Read more

It was never my plan to become Sisyphus

In classic Greek Mythology, Sisyphus was a man who was sentenced to spending eternity rolling a heavy rock up a hill, just to see it roll back down and do it all over again. The idea of struggling so much just to end up exactly where you started is a depressing thought, and unfortunately at times a very familiar experience. We all hope that our pain, effort, and sacrifice will result in something bigger and better than what we had prior to that investment of ourselves. We go to school to learn, so that we have more knowledge as a result. You go to law school to become a lawyer, so that you can do meaningful work helping others (and hopefully make a living, have a respected career, etc.). History is filled with examples of people who have dedicated their lives to doing something difficult, seeing some results, and having long-lasting impact on the future (an excellent example). It is not the expending of energy against a significant barrier that is psychologically damaging; it’s when you get nothing in return. It’s when your efforts feel meaningless. Many people have spent their lives fighting against some insurmountable foe. But if that effort has meaning, then the struggle can be energizing at times. However, if that struggle lacks meaningfulness, discouragement and burnout are the result. Many of us have had the experience of working really hard at a job and feeling no passion for what we do. The result typically is a slow draining of your energy and your joy.

Read more

Eating a Frog during your Power Hour: Tips on fighting procrastination

While the title might sound like the newest diet craze, I assure you it is not. It is, in fact, a technique to fight procrastination. As mentioned in a previous post, procrastination is simply avoidance. We avoid things that are unpleasant. We put off tasks on our to-do lists until later…or until never. As humans, we are motivated by two basic goals: 1) Seeking pleasure, and 2) Avoiding pain. While seeking pleasure can be very motivating (rewarding myself with a cookie after doing a difficult task can help me increase my motivation), we are actually more influenced by avoiding pain. Given that many of our work tasks are unpleasant, dare I say painful, we are given many opportunities throughout our day to decide to avoid something that is unpleasant or to confront it. A pattern of avoiding such things is called procrastination.

Read more

Should I be concerned about feeling down? How do I know if this is Depression?

It is the normal human experience to feel a range of emotions from elation to deep sadness. Some people feel this range of emotions to a lesser degree (find it hard to feel intense emotions) while others feel it to a greater degree (find it hard not to feel intense emotions). Typically, by the time a person has reached adulthood, he or she has some sense of the likely emotional patterns that they experience. A common experience that makes people feel alarmed is when they have an unexpected emotional experience. For example, if a person generally copes well with stress and adversity and s/he all of a sudden has an unexpected reaction to a stressor.  I have heard many people say something to the effect of, “I usually bounce back after a setback, but this time I’m not bouncing right back.” Whether the change is due to the situation or to the person, the fact is something is different.

Read more

The 2-Minute Rule: Fighting Procrastination

One of the more common issues that professionals struggle with is the all-too-common procrastination. Procrastination, just like salsa, can be mild (putting off a simple task that you eventually complete within a few days), intense (developing a pattern of avoiding certain activities or tasks that one day lead to serious consequences), and everything in between. However, unlike salsa, there is no mango version of procrastination.

Simply put, procrastination is avoidance. We avoid things that make us uncomfortable. We avoid things that we fear. And the more you avoid something, the harder it is to confront. It’s like that email you got from an old friend that you were meaning to reply to. At first you put it off because you weren’t sure what to say (avoidance), then maybe you forgot about it, then you remembered that you hadn’t responded, you then felt bad, and then continued to avoid responding because it was now more uncomfortable because you still don’t know what to say AND you feel bad about it. 

Read more

How to deal with any problem: Problem-focused vs Emotion-focused coping

 

Problems come in all shapes and sizes. Needless to say, having only one method of addressing problems would be like having only one tool in your toolbox to fix every household maintenance problem that arose. By the way, I don’t recommend using a hammer to remove a light fixture. Usually doesn’t work out the way you hope. So it is obvious that we need multiple methods of addressing all of the different types of problems that we face each day. Obvious? Yes. Yet in reality we often get into trouble trying to use a preferred problem-solving method with problems that require a different approach.

Read more

Analysis Paralysis – Why it’s so hard to decide sometimes

Multiple times throughout our day we are all faced with decisions to make. Some decisions are easy and do not require much energy, while others are quite taxing and require considerable mental fortitude. Understanding the factors involved in these tougher decisions can help break through the barriers that often keep us from making a decision. One unhelpful tendency that can occur is the experience of over-thinking or over-analyzing a decision. This involves spending too much time considering the options (the pros and cons of potential choices) to the point where a decision is never made, aptly referred to as “Analysis Paralysis”. A desire for perfection and a fear of failure often fuel this tendency. It’s important to recognize that when we are faced with options, it is inevitable that each option will have both pros and cons associated with it. In other words, there is no perfect option, so stop looking for it. It’s important to recognize the pros and cons of each option, to accept that whatever you choose might not work out, try to see failure as a learning opportunity to embrace and not something to avoid at all costs, and try to see your decision as one step in the process and not the final step.

Read more
Back To Top