My kid is scared of dogs. I, on the other hand, want to smoosh my face in every slobbery, mangy wiggling joyous canine I meet. We both see the same dog and have polar opposite reactions to it.
This concept is the root of all productivity…and the building block of motivation. Perception is the lens through which we see all the world. Same dog, different lens for me and my kid. And when we see differently refracted versions of the same thing, we do very different things (when we see a dog, my kid hides behind my leg and I turn into a cooing imbecile).
So, what do our differing perceptions of dogs have to do with productivity?
These perceptions? They’re malleable.
I love dogs. My kid doesn’t. Here’s the thing — It’s the same dang dog. Our experiences are viewed through the unreliable monocles of our perception, clouded by our experience and jumbled by our emotions. Our brains are so malleable that we can change out these monocles for rose-colored glasses or an Oculus).
This example of our perceptions of dogs can be applied to productivity. And it can make a huge difference.
(I’m going to stop here before I spill the awesomesauce productivity beans and ask you kindly to share this with a friend or to your social media!)
And moving on…
Perception and productivity
Let’s say you need to make an important sales call for the new company you created. If you look at that call as a chore — as something to be dreaded and put off until the last minute — you’re probably not going to do such a good job with the call. If you actually complete it at all.
If, instead, you look at the sales call as an opportunity — something you’re excited about that could catapult your passion project to the next level — you’re probably going to prepare for it and you’re likely going to do a great. job with it as well.
Again, it’s the same sales call. But, your productivity (and potentially your entire company’s future) can be altered by the way you perceive this sales call. We are significantly more apt to do the things we want to do before (and more enthusiastically) than those we don’t want to do. The great thing is our perception is malleable.
Changing your perception
How do you change your brain from being afraid of dogs to enjoying them? How do you convince yourself that your sales call is going to be awesome? And how do you change your brain to believe in yourself and your vision at all times? Great question. It’s all in something called reframing.
Dr. Raychelle Cassada Lohmann writes about changing the way you think in Psychology Today. She says, “Fortunately, there is a little secret tool that you can use to literally change the way you think and it’s called reframing. Simply put, reframing is changing how you see something and then expressing it differently.”
Simply put, it’s changing the lens through which you see things.
One of my favorite reframing exercises is the ABC Method, first created by Dr. Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist working in the 1950s. In his studies, Ellis found that there were three parts to most events in our daily lives — the activating event (A), our beliefs about that event (B), and the consequences from the event (C).
In Simply Psychology, Dr. Saul McLeod writes, “Ellis believes that it is not the activating event (A) that causes negative emotional and behavioral consequences (C), but rather that a person interprets these events unrealistically and therefore has an irrational belief system (B) that helps cause the consequences (C).”
So, if seeing a dog is the activating event (A), my kid believes that the dog will bite him (B), so he runs away from dogs (C) and he misses out on fun doggie play time (with dogs that won’t actually bite him anyway).
The key to change is to begin to shift your irrational or unproductive Bs.
If, in the case of your dreaded sales call, your activating event (A) might be looking at your To Do list. Now, you can choose to go with your natural belief in relation to it (B). Ugh. This is going to be terrible. Sales calls are the worst. Or you can, one day at a time, work to shift your beliefs to something more productivity-friendly. This call might be difficult, but it also might score us a lot of sales!
These different beliefs will likely instigate different consequences. In the first instance, you might put off the call until the end of the day when you’re dull and tired. In the second instance, you might jump right on it first thing in the work day when you’re energized and enthusiastic. And these two types of calls will likely render very different results.
Final thoughts
We don’t often think of our mental state or our beliefs about our tasks in relation to productivity. In fact, we usually think the opposite. It doesn’t matter what I think or feel about a task. I just need to get it done. While this kind of thinking might seem helpful, it might just be impacting your productivity. Because your mindset will impact the effectiveness of your efforts. And the more effective you are, the more productive you can be.
This week, I encourage you to take a moment, recognize what your activating events might be, notice your beliefs about them, and then think about ways you can make some changes to impact your productivity and your overall happiness.
I hope you all have a fantastic week.
Love,
Michelle