Pressure is mounting.

You have that compressive feeling in your pre-frontal cortex.

Something needs to be accomplished.  You haven’t given much thought to how its framed. It just needs to be done. Is it a goal, a task? Do people expect or depend on its success?

Perhaps take a few minutes to construct the objective in your head. To phrase it in a way to neutralize those negative feelings and focus on the positive drivers.

Start with what it needs to be done.

Do you value or see the importance of the required activity?

If not, ask, is it part of a greater goal where you can see the value? Focus on that. Will what you do make someone’s life better in some small way? Focus on that.

Now you have dealt the overall purpose. What about all these irrational people running around asking for constant updates and instant resolution – when the solution isn’t even known.

Remember they are uncomfortable with uncertainty and wishing for the struggle to be over so they can return to a predictable routine – until the next panic. You could be their savior.

It is in these situations where you can display leadership. If you are calm and communicate progress effectively you help people to see the light at the end of the micro-tunnel.

Alternatively, some of your colleagues’ stress is because they don’t know whether they can put their trust in you. How you communicate can ease peoples worries and you can gain important allies in the future.

Once you have engendered trust it will be easier for you to focus on the process. You have communicated the steps you will take, now take them. This focus will help you cultivate both enjoyment and increase the sense of purpose for what you are doing, embrace this.

At this stage, do not fret about achieving the goal. it will only consume needless energy, depleting your working memory by worrying, instead focus on each individual task.

Don’t concern yourself with the few that are not yet convinced. You cannot win everyone over. Some will always be entrenched in their micro-managing or pessimistic approaches. Concentrate on the majority and the important stakeholders.

The more you do this, the more you learn how effective this approach is. Successes in many cases are not in the form of how they are originally perceived. Failures will often present further opportunities and alternative paths for you and your colleagues.

Often, it is not success or failure that is important. It is that you have steered the ship out of choppy waters. People’s attention has switched to the next impending storm. Leaving you to enjoy the surf and to bring your ship ashore your way.

This case study highlights the importance of psychologically framing a situation to maximize your energy and wellbeing. Below are some of the key points to help turn the situation in your favor and achieve long term success.

Accept reality for what it really is: In Ray Dalio’s words be a hyper realist about the situation. Thoughts of quitting on the spot or wishing that all your colleagues were calm or rational are not realistic. There is a clear job to do, focus on how to accomplish it technically and to effectively communicate. Anything else will just cause you psychological pain that is of no benefit.

Truth is found outside power: Maybe you feel the task is not related to your skills, or that it is difficult for you to influence the situation. Remember, this is an opportunity to focus and discover an undiscovered truth. This insight maybe a foundation or a principle you can use over again or can bring an immediate benefit to your team which you will be recognized for, thereby increasing your influence.

Enjoy the struggle: Once you have accepted the reality of the situation it will be easier to focus on the task at hand. This will help you cultivate both enjoyment and a sense of purpose for what you are doing, embrace this. This will give you positive energy that the rest of the group will feed from and you will how one by one you win people over.

Be careful of the one-track mind: Sometimes being the solo struggler will allow you to accomplish a goal without dealing with the myriad of concerns from the wider group. However, you should not cut yourself off. Communicate your plan and be cognizant of the comments you receive. Don’t dismiss what is said without good reason. Instead try to distil what they are saying, it may reveal and alternative path you had not considered.

Ask yourself if you are getting in your own way: Often a task is way simpler than you are making it. The work may have already been done, all you need to do is rinse and repeat and move onto the next task. However, our ego wants it to be more complex than it really is – we want to think of something totally original that is uniquely our own. Or alternatively, it could be simply you don’t want to do as the other person suggests because you don’t like the way they phrased it. Ask yourself, is it worth investing the energy to resist or to develop your own method? In many cases, the answer is no – get it done and move on.

There you are, my blueprint to help you turnaround an unpleasant situation. To dispel the social pressure of not wanting to disappoint and instead focus on the process. Within that process you have control, you can focus on the steps needed to be completed and how you present your findings to colleagues.

At some point you will have to give thought to not only making the best of the situation you find yourself in. But ultimately, about your own purpose, to cultivate habits and develop a vision to allow you to sail your own ship, not just someone else’s.