Shortcircuit Analytics

The last few days I've been preparing for an job interview.   I had it today and I learned something about myself.  Self induced stress can shortcircuit the analytical brain.  I've been in stressful situations before, sometimes I am stressed in them and sometimes not.  I really think it depends what I think about the situation and what to expect.  Fear tends to cause stress in me.  I will share what it did to me and what I did to mitigate the stress.

While in stressful situations feeling stress is normal.  At least that seems to be the common thinking.  Stress comes from fear, and fear can be caused by several things.  You can fear the unknown, or the known.  Fearing the known means you had a bad experience before and you don't want to repeat it.  In my case, I have had bad interviews before.  I also had some good ones.  I just did not want to screw it up.  In the bad interviews I felt stress.  The stress cause me to be rigid, shifty eyed, and scared of my own shadow.  That is not a good recipe for an interview.  In an interview you want to feel loose and comfortable.  That way your answers will flow out and you will have a good time.  It would also be a good experience for he interviewer and that can only work in your favor. 

Going to the interview I felt myself tensing up.  I knew I did not want to be tense.  So I meditated. I did some basic breathing and basic meditation.  No fancy meditation, just what I was comfortable with.  I went into the meeting with a little trepidation, but it was under control.  I had a good conversation with the interviewers.  We talked and laughed.  My brain was picked and I answered confidently and loosely.  Bingo, I made it happen.  I went away from that thanking the Source and my lucky stars.

I gained a small victory for myself today.  I acknowledged the fear, the stress, and the tensing up.  I mitigated that with some meditation.  Then I had a good time.  It's been hours since I had the interview and I still feel good about it.  I tend to criticize myself, but this time that was cut short because of the good feeling.  I may not get the job, but I did master myself and was a good player in conversation.  That is quite valuable in any business.