Are You Ready to Conquer the Chaos?

Have you ever heard the saying, “Not my monkeys, not my circus?”

Well, I saw a Facebook meme recently with the image of a little girl, hands on either side of her head and a very surprised look on her face, that read, “That moment when you realize these are your monkeys and this is your circus.”

Of course, it made me laugh. We all have those moments in life when we realize it is our circus and those are our monkeys.

It doesn’t always bring a laugh, though. We look around, dazed and overwhelmed, stress and tension building, and wonder how we’re supposed to manage the chaos swirling around us.

What I’ve learned in my life and years in business is that sometimes life just happens. Sometimes the chaos can come unexpectedly, through no fault of our own, and we’re forced to do our best.

But I’ve also learned that a lot of what we call chaos is often just patterns we haven’t changed. The way we are – our Natural Productivity Style – and our ability (or willingness) to make changes in the way we do things can have a huge effect on whether chaos is a temporary state or we pitch a tent and choose to live there.

In terms of Natural Productivity Style, there are four components of behavior that can be measured to see how we manage the world around us. They are:

• Decisiveness – How we tend to approach problems and make decisions.
• Interactive – How we tend to interact with others and share opinions.
• Stabilizing – How we tend to pace things in our environment.
• Cautious – Our preference for established protocol and standards.

Just from the descriptions, it’s easy to see how those factors could impact our lives. It’s not that where we fall on the spectrum with any of those traits is good or bad, necessarily, but understanding our natural inclinations and how they affect our daily lives – and productivity – can be life-changing!

Are you more demanding or agreeable? Are you more predictable and steady, or spontaneous and impetuous?

Are you a perfectionist who procrastinates and struggles to complete tasks because of a fear that it won’t be perfect?

There are ways to work around or maximize those characteristics when it comes to productivity and conquering the chaos we can control.

When it comes to increasing productivity and reducing stress in our lives, the insights gained from knowing and understanding who we are and what’s behind why we do what we do is invaluable.

When we understand who we are and why we do things the way we do, we can make different choices. We can change things we’ve done on autopilot for years without realizing. And we can leverage our strengths, and make a plan to compensate for our weaknesses.

In other words, knowledge is power, and changing the things we can to improve productivity, reduce stress and bring balance to our lives is a good thing. And it all starts with insight and a plan.

So, are you ready to conquer the chaos?