In the world of business and entrepreneurship going global represents, for many, the ultimate success. Reaching people in the farther corners of the planet is an enviable business goal. So much so that a lot of money, time and effort is focused on influencing and going "viral". The inner realms of your psyche are also susceptible to the adoption of global thoughts, beliefs and ideas and from a physical perspective, we are all too familiar with the devastating impact of a virus going... well... viral. Going global means that the whole world is changed by a product or service and going viral can be seen as a blessing or a curse.
Going global in your thinking, your opinions, and your beliefs can also be devastating. From a psychological perspective when we label ourselves, others, and events as totally bad, or worse terrible, awful or world-ending we can generate emotional responses to match. These emotional responses can range from shame, guilt, depression, sadness, anxiety, anger and stress. A full range. In turn, these emotions lead to behaviour which might attempt to alleviate the pain of feeling or rash and poor decisions. All because the view we took of ourselves, another, or an event in the world was evaluated globally.
An example of a global evaluation might be in your assessment of your performance. We often hear that small technical changes in performance can aggregate to produce marginal gains. What is less commonly talked about is that within this model marginal losses are also accounted for and to a certain extent expected and planned for. Small mistakes often lead to big, gigantic global evaluations of oneself, another, or progress where one might assess themselves as a failure, assess another as not up to the job and assess an event as totally unacceptable and unsurmountable. The next move is often giving up.
In any performance endeavour failure is bad, it is a side step or backward step in relation to a goal but as Dr Albert Ellis would have said "Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water" In our assessment of mistakes, performance progress, and unexpected and unwanted events. To recover your performance well is key and an important element of this is evaluating the performance, the small technical elements that may have contributed to a mistake and avoiding the generation of debilitating emotions and pressure that prevent your progress.
The emotions that you generate for yourself with your global evaluations take up a lot of energy to manage. Energy that you don't have. Energy that is better spent solving problems and learning from mistakes. Don't go global.
Click below to subscribe to my free weekly articles.
Latest News
I have set a date for my first Confidence Day Retreat here in Switzerland. It's happening on the 30th of September 2023. Register your interest by emailing me at jenni@jennijonespsychology.com.