Can We Do Good Work Under Stress and Anxiety?

Nothing will ever be perfect before we can start our work.

Creating content, having client meetings, doing high-quality work, and other things that help us grow are best done when you are happy, have nothing to worry about, and are healthy. However, we cannot expect such an equilibrium all the time. We all have financial issues, health issues, and relationship issues. Many things pull us in all directions and we feel anxious.

It might feel like we cannot work when we have distractions and we might subconsciously put the blame on our lack of work and lack of performance on our circumstances out of our control. But warriors are not victims. Warriors are the ones who push through even if everything around them is not perfect.

Hypothetically, if everything in your life is perfect, you might not be motivated to work. If you have achieved all your dreams, then what’s there to pursue anyway?

Constraints fuel creativity. Yes, it would be better if we could focus on work without worrying about anything, but maybe, we are focused on our work because many things in our life are not yet perfect and work becomes that one thing that is under our control.

The brand Digital Deepak was started in 2013. That year was one of the toughest periods of my life. My relationship with my parents, wife, career prospects, and everything was uncertain and chaotic. Digital Deepak brand gave me direction and something to focus on. The best work of my brand was done when things were at the best point in my life (2020-2021), but that couldn’t have happened if I had not started the brand in the first place.

I work because work is therapy. Some of the best articles I've written have come out during the highest stress levels in my personal life. I just shared what I was going through and people also felt the truth in what I said. One such article is when I realized I needed to stop worrying about other people and start focusing on myself.

Focus On The Things You Can Control

We have anxiety and stress because some things are not under our control. Other people's feelings and emotions are not under our control. The economy is not under our control. We cannot control our output but we can control our input. If you decide to wake up at 4 am tomorrow morning, it might be hard but it’s completely under your control.

It might look like I am in a perfectly meditative state today to write an article like this but to be honest, there has been some turbulence in my life, a few things worrying me and that triggered me. I started with a blank page and decided this was what I should be writing about. Once I started writing I started feeling better.

You cannot expect all the traffic signals to turn green before you start your car. There will be several things in your life that are not yet in place, but that doesn't mean that you should wait till things are perfect to start that dream project, business, or assignment. You just have to start it and the universe will align, things will fall into place as you start moving.

When a car is stationary, you cannot change the direction of the car. When a car is not moving, you can turn the wheels, but it will still be just sitting there. However, when you start moving the car, then you can change the direction of the car. You need to go fast, you just need to move.

The War of Art

Not the art of war. But the war of art. A wonderful book by Steven Pressfield. He talks about how creating a work of art is a war with ourselves. Every day we go to war to make something. There will be 1000 things that prevent us from doing works of art. We do an internal battle in our minds to move forward.

So start that blog, write that first article, create that newsletter make that YouTube video, write a LinkedIn post, read a book, or sign up for a course. Do something to move the needle forward and you will be surprised how the momentum picks up.

I have been at several points in my life where I felt that things were just stuck. I waited and nothing happened. If you don't do anything you will feel stuck for even 10 years. The only way to get yourself unstuck is to make a move.

So, make that move. Make that micro-move. Just move forward. You will start feeling better. And things will fall into place.

Reply and let me know, what are you going to start today?

Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju