Have you noticed? When you’re stressed it’s difficult to communicate with others.
How does that impact your work? And how does it make you feel?
Wouldn’t it be GREAT to reduce your stress and IMMEDIATELY improve how you interact with colleagues and clients???
I did that last week! (Don’t worry, I’m not saying you need to go karate-punching your way into the chilly January sea to get rid of your stress – this is a different story…)
Last week, the unthinkable happened…. My website inexplicably went down. 最悪！ I was surprised because I thought I had everything in place to prevent that.
But it happened.
My web support was unavailable. I contacted someone else, but they couldn’t help. I looked into other ways to resolve the problem, but no solutions came.
At the same time, I was preparing for the following day – two 3-hour workshops in Japanese with customized content for a new corporate client. I needed time to focus on that!
I realized that I couldn’t do anything about the website until my web support was available – on Saturday.
So I decided to turn my attention away from the website – which I couldn’t control – and toward delivering the best possible workshops – which I could control.
The result? Over 40 happy workshop participants with greater skills and confidence in global business communication. And my website was back up and running on Saturday! やった！
The impact on my business from my website being down? None that I’ve noticed so far.
In fact, during the 2 days that the website was down, I received a LOT of online attention because the Kindle version of my book 英語の仕事術 became available for preorder. ワクワクワクワク。
In the past, I would have been telling myself that I MUST get the website fixed. I would have fixated on the problem that I couldn’t control and become extremely stressed. And how would that have impacted my workshops and the participants? Not in a good way, I’m sure!
Fortunately, time and experience have taught me that the number one way to reduce my stress is to change the way I’m communicating with myself. I focus my thoughts and then my action on what I CAN control. Goodbye, stress!
The next time you’re feeling stress, ask yourself what you can do about the situation. If you can do something about it, take action immediately. If you can’t, turn your thoughts and action to a place where you CAN make progress.
(Disclaimer: I haven’t eliminated stress from my life 100%, but I’m making big progress – lol!)
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As a special bonus to accompany 英語の仕事術, I’ve created an audio recording of the English phrases that I introduce in the book 🙂
You can use these phrases to communicate with clarity and confidence when you’re
- giving business presentations
- participating in telephone conference calls
- facilitating global meetings
- dealing with workplace conflict.
I created this audio bonus because I know that many of you want to improve your English listening and speaking skills. By listening to these phrases repeatedly, you’ll remember them more easily.
When you can remember the English, you don’t have to worry about it. You can focus on the people you’re communicating with. That’s what’s most important for successful global business communication.