How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

Know Your Early Warning Signs
Forward planning is helpful. But our automatic brain works fast to put us on the
defensive. So fast, in fact, that we can be triggered before we even consciously
realize what’s going on. So it helps to recognize the early warning signs that
your deliberate system is going offline. For example, I know that if I haven’t
smiled for a while and my face feels set and frozen, it’s a sign that I might be in

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fight-flight-freeze mode. For you, the most obvious physical signal might be a
change in the pitch of your voice, your chest tightening, sweaty palms, or a
pounding heart. You might also have some signature phrases you tend to say
when you’re in defensive mode. So think again about those past situations where
you were wound up. Walk through them again in your mind. Notice:
The way your body or voice changes when you’re getting uptight
Any pointed phrases that you find yourself saying when you’re annoyed or
upset—to yourself, or out loud
What other people might notice in your tone or demeanor if they were
watching you
Know How to “Step Back and Reset”
When you feel the temperature rising—either you’ve spotted your favorite
trigger, or you’ve spotted an early warning sign—you want to have a simple go-
to technique to help you step back and reset. You’re effectively giving your
brain’s deliberate system a moment to catch up with the faster automatic system
that’s put you on alert. But you need it just at the point that you’re feeling the
pinch. So it needs to be something easy, that you can do quickly and without
much thought, when you’re in the middle of a tense interaction. (In 
Part VI
, on
resilience, I’ll show you some more techniques for rising above difficult
situations, but “step back and reset” is the core of what you need in the middle of
a conversation.)
Try doing some thinking now about the right technique to deploy in the heat
of the moment.