Internal Workplace Calm through doing Hard Things

Today, I will be bringing a topic not often covered in the project manager community, tech community, or even white collar workplace at all. We’re going to talk about lifting weights and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This is a discussion so rare that many people reading this may not even see the connection yet.

One of the most prevalent challenges people have at work is maintaining composure through difficult moments. Similarly, many struggle with changing priorities, general adversity, and other challenges often delivered through life in the workplace.

Before I bring us to the point, we will start with one other prefacing topic. As a new parent, I’ve been consuming all kinds of parenting related content. There was one I saw recently that really struck me. It was essentially saying that you may believe that your child’s intense negative reaction to you leaving the room, them dropping something, or any other matter you see as trivial, you may want to reconsider your judgement. You see, from their perspective, their reaction is totally rational because relative to their life experience, these things are the worst things to have ever happened to them.

Now, back to adults. For the vast majority of people, the challenges they experience in the workplace are the worst challenges they experience every single day. When their spouse asks them about their day at the dinner table, the challenges discussed will almost certainly be work related.

There is a way to vastly improve your experience and mentality at work without having to change anything about your workplace, but changing your activities outside the office. Introduce hard things into your life that exceed the difficulties at work and suddenly, your work will not bother you as much, and you will now have a great hobby which will bring you all sorts of other benefits.

I cannot stress enough how much doing this can change your life. I do heavy weight training and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. While I could discuss these topics ad-nauseum, I’ll just leave it at this: My weight training reminds me to push my limits and requires me to break mental barriers to improve my performance. In jiu-jitsu (and other martial arts), I am fighting someone physically 3 times per week, sending my adrenaline high and requiring me to maintain clear focus while under stress. Suddenly, the challenges at work don’t seem so bad.

Do you want to change your work experience? DO HARD THINGS!