What's the worst
“Will you be able to handle pressure?” That’s a silly question to ask. There is no other answer apart from “Yes”. But, handling pressure is quite an art form. Art is not to be explained, but to be felt.
Power of pressure
Pressure is subjective. A scolding could be a breaking point for me, while a full fledged assault could be for you. Hence, pressure is a powerful word. No one knows how much they can take until they lock eyes with the most frightening situation.
I’ve cracked handling pressure. Well, to some extent; Sometimes pressure does get onto me. But the best kind of pressure I can take is the sudden pressure - that blow in the back of the brain you get on a random Friday, that is the pressure I’m talking about. I tackle it by thinking it from the other side.
Question is the answer
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
is the question I ask if I’m panicking because of a problem I’m not able to solve. For example, if I’m given a task to be completed within a day and it had been two days with no progress, manager pings me for an emergency meeting, back of the mind I know it’s about the task, I start panicking. Thoughts in chaos, sweat drops forming under my neck, heart beat in zone 5, breathing like I’ve just run a marathon. In that moment, I ask myself THE question. What’s the worst? I start answering it from there. I might lose the job if it’s as bad as I’m feeling. Can I sustain it? Well, I have my home to go back. Not much debt. Guess I can manage until I get another. I don’t think I’m that bad that I won’t get another job ever. So, I’ll be fine even if this meeting goes to the worst possible extent.
This helps bring my vitals back to normal and think sanely. The whole drill helped me many times not only bring me out of panic, but also solve the immediate problem quickly. And guess what, I was never fired!
It’s not that bad
We generally fall into panic in such scenarios cause our fear takes over our logical brain. What if I lose my salary? Will I lose respect with my family? Will everyone laugh at me cause I make dumb decisions? Am I that horrible of a person? Don’t I really deserve a promotion or a raise? All these questions dance around cause you’ve heard one or the other from someone, saw it on a sad reel, or a youtuber ranted about it.
In all sense, you are fine most of the time. Probability of you getting fired or getting humiliated is quite low if you work well and have good friends. So next time you are facing the panic meeting room, ask the question. “What is the worst that can happen to me?”