You and I know that, along with the joys and successes we will experience in 2015, we will also face a few challenges.

Well, a few days back I allowed myself to experience an almost paralyzing sense of overwhelm in the face of some very big challenges.

I ground to a halt.     For hours.        Very unlike me!

Even some very astute coaching questions from my wife weren’t enough.
I couldn’t allow it to continue though. Obviously.

So I decided to do an experiment on myself, which I’m happy to share with you.

Here’s what I did.
Recalling my mum’s ‘Throw it over your shoulder’  exhortation, I looked for an emotional management model I hadn’t visited for a while.

It had to be effective, simple and quick and, because I’m a big fan of Questions, especially incisive questions, it had to be question based.

I’m a fan of Peter Clough’s 4C model for exploring Mental Toughness and Resilience I asked myself questions about how I felt within each of the 4Cs for each of the challenges. This enabled me to gain 4 separate dimensions of clarity over my emotions on each challenge. This was a massive in enabling me to see the challenges for what they were to me and to work out the best way to manage each.
You will see a link to a useful document at the end of this post.

Peter Clough’s 4C factors of Mental Toughness are:

Control: The extent to which we feel in control of our lives or a situation
Commitment: The extent to which we are able to set, stick with and deliver our goals
Challenge: The extent to which we embrace change, accept risk and operate outside our comfort zone
Confidence: Our self-belief in our ability to do what we have set ourselves to do.

As we set about making our ambitions for 2015 and beyond a reality, we must bring all our resources, emotional, intellectual, commercial and technological, to bear on the way we manage our competing priorities and deliver our critical results.

You are welcome to join my upcoming complementary online 30 minute briefings to see how I equip people to bring all their resources to bear on their competing priorities and maximising Microsoft Outlook into the bargain.
Here is the link to your session:

30 January 12noon 30 minute Web Briefing

Here’s the link to a useful Mental Toughness and 4C document  overviewing the model. It’s good.

My very best wishes for a deeply satisfying 2015,

Richard