Many well-known leaders went bankrupt an average of 7 times. Why are some people able to overcome stress to move forward, while others give up before even starting?
I believe the fundamental characteristics of overcoming stress are laid down in our childhood. If you demonstrate leadership behavior in crisis situations early on, then despite the scale of the problem, that behavior will stay with you for the rest of your life. This will eventually lead you to success later in life. In contrast, those who are used to giving up early on in their personal lives will do the same in business.
Yet it seems that different people seem to have different resistance to these stresses. Someone gives up from a little ambiguity, and someone with valor can live through challenges like bankruptcy or even betrayal from their partners.
What defines this ability to resist stress, overcome it in different ways, go through crisis situations, and succumb to emotions? In my view, this ability of a person to maintain emotional and psychological stability in response to destructive stimuli can be referred to as Emotional Immunity.
‘Emotional Immunity’ is very related to the concept of Emotional Resilience. That is, if Emotional Immunity allows you to initially stave off the effects of destructive stimuli such as distress, information and communication noise (junk information, junk communications), information overload, multitasking, “toxic” environment, traumatic situations, physical illnesses (including incurable ones), loss, shock, manipulation, abusive behavior, gaslighting and other forms of psychological abuse, then resilience, as part of the immunity function, will help you resist negativity.
So why do you need strong emotional immunity?
- In order not to overreact to difficult life situations
- In order not to translate stress into psychosomatic illnesses
- To be able to keep moving forward even when it’s difficult and scary
- To avoid being infected by other people’s emotions and manipulation
- In order not to succumb to provocations and rough times in your personal life and business
- To move through life with confidence and optimism despite the difficulties
- To be a true leader for your followers even in times of crisis
- To be healthy, strong, and happy
Here’s how you can strengthen your Emotional Immunity.
Manage contagion factors
Medical professionals always warn you to refrain from entering a room with other sick people, especially if it’s something contagious like tuberculosis. You should take the same approach when it comes to stress and negativity.
Track the factors that plunge you into a stressful state – news feeds, social networks, stock exchanges, chats with colleagues, or even communications with loved ones. Though some of these things may be unavoidable, you can minimize their effects by setting a specific time of the day to deal with them.
You should also learn to set boundaries. If you are overworking yourself to burnout, or have to deal with an abuser or a toxic person, then work on your personal boundaries. Do you know what the first step is to protect them? Understand them. Formulate what is acceptable for you, what is unacceptable, then it will be easier for you to translate this into your life. Deciding these boundaries early will make communicating with others much easier.
Get vaccinated
The principle of vaccination is to introduce a small amount of an infection in order to teach the body to resist a large infection. Apply the same principle to other things as well.
If public speaking or communicating with stakeholders makes you nervous, start out by trying to join more and more conversations at work. This will allow you to hone your speaking skills in a safe space. This small step can even evolve into hiring a coach that will develop your oratory skills. Eventually, these small steps will add up and allow you to take the bigger step of speaking to an audience.
Strengthen mental stability
Have you noticed when we are tired, have not had enough sleep or become physically ill, our psyche also begins to fail? In these conditions, we do not control our emotions. Instead, they control us, force us to make wrong impulsive decisions, occupy our attention, and affect our thinking and memory. So how can we strengthen our psyche?
- Healthy proper sleep: the optimal amount of sleep is 7-8 hours, more or less sleep is harmful to the body. The exact duration depends on the phases of sleep, the full cycle takes from 2.5-3.5 hours, and you need to wake up after the ‘slow’ phase of sleep in order to feel well-rested. We also need to go to bed before 12 am to set the optimum rhythm for sleep.
You need to sleep in complete darkness and not use gadgets for an hour before going to bed, because this can harm the proper production of melatonin. Melatonin makes sleep deep and filling. Additionally, to avoid morning anxiety and wake up in good energetic mood, you can also calculate your cortisol window and wake up before it. Usually, it is 6:30, 6:00, or 5:30 am.
- Proper nutrition: you are what you eat. I won’t go into the details of nutrition, but treat your body with respect and give it the right food in a timely manner. There are studies confirming that if you eat junk food for 2 weeks, then you will begin to experience apathy, lack of energy and fall into real depressive states.
- Sports: the important rule of this method is that sports should be varied and bring you pleasure. For example, for half a year I had a lesson with a trainer three times a week and could not fall in love with either a marathon or sprint running, but I love Muay Thai, tennis, and horse riding. If you find your sport, it will charge you and produce the right hormones. Swimming, running, yoga—there are many options.
- Development of the psyche: increase the neuroplasticity of the brain through meditation and mindfulness practices, maintain psychological hygiene with the help of a psychologist, and keep reflection and analytical notes.
- When planning for the future, it’s important to not only focus on current tasks but also address past obligations and create a transparent plan for what’s to come. This applies to all aspects of life, including business, relationships, and finances, and will help build a strong foundation for success.
Practice proper infection response techniques
Through psychotherapy, you can identify harmful patterns of thinking and behavior, recognize their triggers, and develop new tools to address them. I want to help you and your employees build strong emotional and psychological resilience because happy individuals achieve great results through inspiration and motivation, not fear and resistance. Let’s start a conversation about how I can assist you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Kravtcova is a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and is internationally certified with EuroPsy or European Certificate in Psychology (2021). She is a member of several respectful international business psychology societies including the International Society for Emotional Intelligence (2017), and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) – a division of the American Psychological Association or APA (2011).
Anna is a speaker at conferences all around the world (USA, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia, etc.), and did a TED talk on Emotional Intelligence. She has extensive managerial experience across various positions including as HR director (500 employees), COO (6 tech startups), CEO (17 hotels and restaurants), and managing partner of an international consulting company (36 consultants, 150+ clients around the world).
If you’ve watched “Billions” on Netflix, she is “Wendy” in real life.