So I’ve found that pretty much for a fact, I am the personality type that, given enough pressure, will cave, not thrive. I’m way more likely to see myself as a failure and I just melt down. Then yesterday came. Somehow at work, we were missing two people and a manager is only capable of effectively covering one. For opening prep, I was called in to come in “early” which was really still later than I would had I been scheduled for opening prep. Basically, we were screwed. Company policy is to open fifteen minutes earlier than what the sign says if we can, and to do that we have to be done with prep and cleaning up after prep fifteen minutes before that. Instead, yesterday we were all still wrapping stuff up in between the first guests. Now one can easily look at this and say we failed. Somehow yesterday, I did not see it that way and instead saw it as a challenge: What good can I make out of this (ridiculously lousy situation)? Instead of weighing me down and getting me further behind, I let the “opportunity to fail” become the more realistic “There is no way it’s going to be the usual perfection that we strive for, so how can I still pull off success of getting prepped for the day as a whole, and how can I do that with excellence?” And it drove me, and encouraged me and made my day so much brighter than it would have been had I believed I had failed—and that that was the end of the story. For once I was able to let the pressure I faced that day be a positive force to push me past the bleak original forecast and forward into success.
What about you? Are you someone who thrives or crumbles under pressure?
