5 Ways to Play Offense in Life

Here are 5 simple ways to lean into the challenges of life and create positive momentum.

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The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Anxiety and Depression, Then and Now

A long time ago, in hunter-gatherer societies, anxiety and depression were adaptive. Anxiety kept people vigilant, away from harm. And depression was a signal for social support. For example, a tribe might have consoled a depressed individual whose mate just got killed in a tiger attack.

Anxiety and depression were adaptive back then. They were survival responses in the context of living in a dangerous environment. Food was scarce, and you might get eaten by a predator.

Today, depression and anxiety need to be re-examined in the context of modern life. A contemporary "tiger" might be an email or news headline. Less dangerous, but still stressful.

It's important to say here that anxiety and depression are normal human reactions, nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, a little anxiety can help you focus and stay alert. A little depression can allow others to help you in a time of need.

But chronic anxiety and depression is maladaptive, it doesn't serve you. That's why you need to self-intervene and go on offense. You need to lean into the things that caused the anxiety and depression in the first place.

Approach-Avoidance

In psychology there’s a concept called the Approach-Avoidance Conflict. This occurs when the positive and negative outcomes of a decision produce indecision.

Let's say you want to start your own business. On the one hand, you're excited about working for yourself. On the other hand, you're anxious that your business might fail. While you want to approach the issue, you also want to avoid it. There's a conflict. And if left unresolved, it produces anxiety and depression.

Maybe you're anxious about having a hard conversation with a family member. Avoiding the issue will likely cause even more anxiety. But finally having that conversation, in a positive and productive way, alleviates anxiety.

Maybe you're feeling depressed about your job. Avoiding your feelings may work in the short-term. You can always grab some beers on Friday night, right? But the solution that actually solves the problem is to approach it, to find the courage to face the reasons why you’re feeling depressed.

I'm not saying this is easy, believe me, I've been depressed before. But going on offense and taking positive action will kick negativity to the curb.

Okay, ready to play some offense? Let’s go!

5 Ways to Play Offense

These five strategies can help you create positive momentum, and keep feelings of anxiety and depression at bay.

1. Eat the Frog First

Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Of course he didn't mean literally eating a frog. The proverbial frog here is doing the thing that you dread, that thing that will be painful now but pay off in the long run.

One way to do this is to make a "frog list" where the night before you write down one "frog" to "eat" the next morning. Some common frogs are exercising, paying a bill, starting your taxes, or initiating a difficult conversation.

Once you get used to tackling the hard thing first, you build your action-taking muscles and procrastination begins to atrophy. Of course one of the biggest things that perpetuates anxiety is procrastination.

Read more about ending procrastination on my blog, Pre-crastination, the Antidote to Procrastination.

2. Wake up Earlier

Nothing fuels anxiety like waking up late. You're instantly stressed, cortisol floods your body, and you start dwelling on your problems.

Why not give yourself a break and wake up earlier. Not only will you be less rushed, but you'll tell yourself on a subconscious level that you are in control, that you are getting a jump on the day.

Try getting up just 30 minutes earlier in the morning and watch your anxiety levels drop. One caveat here is that you will also need to go to bed 30 minutes earlier!

Learn more about morning routines by watching my video, Morning Routine for Success | Get Your Mind SET in 5 Minutes.

3. Power Postures

You may have heard about the research that's been done on the benefits of enacting a power posture.

Have you ever done something really difficult and felt great afterwards? How do you stand? That's right, you hold your head high. That's your body mirroring your mood.

The cool thing is that you can hack in the other way. You can make your mind follow your body.

Here's what you do: every night before you go to bed, and every morning when you wake up, strike a powerful pose.

Think of how Superman or Wonder Woman stands when they feel undaunted. Head high, chest out, hands on hips, a wide stance. Power and positivity; no room for negativity.

Keep doing this and you’ll short-circuit those default evening and morning grumpy moods. 

4. One Small Action

Perhaps you've heard of analysis-paralysis?

It's when you need to make a decision but you get stuck in overthinking. The keyword here is "stuck." The more you think, the more indecisive and stuck you get.

The way out of this trap is to take action, however small, to get the ball rolling.

Let's say you need to send an important email but you don't know what to say. You've been putting it off and it's stressing you out.

Instead of tackling the whole thing at once, start an email draft. Then schedule two 15-minute time slots every day to work on it. Don't worry about punctuation and grammar. Little by little, you'll get it done.

Make it a regular habit to take micro-actions proactively on those daunting tasks you need to handle.

5. You Are a Gift

Think of yourself as a gift to the world. Your unique talents, your personality, your work ethic, your sense of humor… whatever it is, these things need to be shared with the world on a regular basis.

One of the quickest ways out of feeling anxious or depressed is to connect with others, to offer your help and encouragement.

Here's a couple of ways to keep yourself juiced with positive energy while also helping others:

• Try sending an "appreciation text" to a friend. You could say something like, "Hey, just thinking of you, hope you're doing great!"

• Give verbal compliments more often. Complement your coworkers, praise your kids, tell your neighbor their yard looks nice.

• Do volunteer work. It doesn't have to be a big time commitment. It can be once a month. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, the public library, or an animal shelter. 

In Conclusion

Hopefully you're feeling a sense of momentum just by reading this blog post.

You see, taking positive action, approaching rather than avoiding, getting a jump on the day, doing the hard thing first… all of these are what's called playing offense.

Playing offense means you are the creator of your life as opposed to the reactor. It's much more interesting and rewarding than playing defense. And it starts with you taking just a little bit of action…