Punching Above Your Weight: A Major Cause of Chronic Stress

People who have an inner awareness of their strengths and limitations are far more resilient and able to handle the inevitable stressors of the fast paced workplace. Unfortunately during my corporate career I wasn’t one of them.

When we possess a distorted view of our capabilities, to compensate for a myriad of unhealthy subconscious beliefs, we tend to set unrealsitic, overly ambitious and unattainable goals for ourself and others. We “punch above our weight”, pushing ourselves harder and harder, at the expense of the other areas of our lives. Our lives become overly stressful as every thing we do is to fulfill the over exaggerated value we place on our contribution. Sound like anyone you know? This definitely describes the old me to a tee!

So how do we know if we are being inaccurate in our assessment of self?

People who make an accurate self assessment exhibit the following traits:

1. A positive self-image and are reflective and learn from their mistakes,
2. An openness to candid feedback, new perspectives, continuous learning and self development,
3. The ability to identify and target areas for improvement and incremental change,
4. Ask for help from others who might have more experience, knowledge and ability, and
5. Know their capabilities and have a clear sense of when they need to dial it back to reduce stress.

Going through my corporate career I was 0 from 5. How did you fare?

I never asked for help because I thought it would be considered a sign of weakness. My tendency was to always want to appear right in front of others, blaming everything external to me for my mistakes. Micromanagement was my daily modus operandi. Why would I delegate when I wanted it done right?
This caused continual conflict and my supervisors were constantly putting out fires, weighing up my technical excellence against my often unmanageable behaviour to see if I was worth keeping in the team. Fortunately, or so I thought at the time, I would move myself out to greener pastures before they had the chance to terminate our relationship.

So you may be thinking why am I being so self effacing and vulnerable as I write this article.

That’s simple; it is far easier for me, and those around me, when I am honest and live within my true ability than the way it used to be.

Are you punching above your weight, at the expense of your health and happiness, or are you at peace with yourself and showing up each day as the real authentic you? Take it from me, the latter is better for everyone.

Have an amazing week…you deserve it!

Cheers Grant