Lose the pressure to please and restore your identity.

Imagine who you would define yourself as if you lost the pressure to please. These days we're constantly under a barrage of tests and trials over what's being asked of us to produce - especially those of us in teams that are no longer the same size but are left with the same scope. If the constant asks and barrage of demands keep coming your way, the likelihood of proving your capability, strategic thought, and impact must also bring anxiety and stress to maintain the perception of value you have built and brought with you over the course of time. Ironically, this overwhelming amount of work may have once come as a blessing to prove one's worth, but the incessant demands that have been brought in our economic climate, now bring a source of tension and unhealthy emotional well-being. One saving grace is the result of your response to the question of who you would define yourself if you indeed could lose the pressure to please. Those meetings where mouths move but you cannot process and where everyone has an opinion but yours feels mute is precisely when you should consider shedding the need to please from your modus operandi - that's in this week's episode of the Working Ant.