CAREERS:   How to use anxiety to your advantage

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor  |  There is a lot of information out there sharing the steps to deal with anxiety. It’s all mostly geared to help you reduce it.

However, I’m going to offer you something today that will show you how to use anxiety to your advantage.  A few years ago, I picked up this tip from a friend at a barbecue restaurant…a place where I often gather pearls of wisdom.

Me:  “I found myself waking up at 2 a.m. every morning.”

Friend: “Me too. That’s when I get around to my to-do list.”

Me:  “Huh?”

Fanning

I was surprised to learn that I wasn’t alone in this early morning wake-up habit and even more surprised that it would be a time when anyone would be working on their to-do list.

However, when I embraced this same process, it helped me sleep better … a lot better.  I even felt more organized.

Make anxiety your muse

See anxiety as a muse that wakes you up at 2 a.m. to make your to-do list.

Embrace the muse and see how you deal with the anxiety a bit better, sleep more, and actually become more productive.

Most people I know who wake up at 2 a.m. find themselves doing this:

Laying there awake in bed with their mind spinning

Listening to the inner voice that says, “I should be sleeping,” “I’m going to be exhausted tomorrow,” “Why can’t I sleep?”

Turning on the TV or start scrolling through messages on their phone

Unfortunately, none of these techniques help them in either falling asleep or doing something productive.

However, over the years I have found some effective steps to deal with anxiety. I don’t know if these steps are medically proven. They probably are not, but I can tell you these techniques surely work for me.

Three steps to use anxiety to your advantage

Try these:

Acknowledge your muse – When the inner voices, says “I should be sleeping,” let that be a trigger to do something other than trying to sleep.

Make your list – Create a list of what’s on your mind. It could be to-do’s, worries, doubts, a few book chapters or anything. If you feel like talking, pick-up your phone and record it. Just empty your mind and put it on a list.

Give yourself permission to go back to bed – It was the character Scarlet O’Hara who famously said “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”  Good advice!

When you wake-up in the middle of the night and make your list, it helps you put things off just a little bit longer so you can get more sleep.  Otherwise, you might be tempted to start working immediately.

You’ll wake-up more refreshed and know exactly what to do first.

Write down these three steps and keep them by your bed. Try them when your muse wakes you next time at 2 a.m.

To a good night’s rest.

• P.S: Download my free report, The Catastrophic Cost of Quitting: How Organizations and Employees Pay the Ultimate Price