I can’t relate to high promotions, but I can relate to getting long-awaited opportunities, that the wait was so long, that when I finally got the opportunity, I was a nervous wreck and couldn’t really produce.
You say:
1. I can't sleep due to constant anxiety and stress, ioverthink everything.
After many years of not having any assignments, we’ll call them, I was finallhy given one and the night before it was due the next day,
I stayed up all night trying to do the assignment, and was over thinking to the point that I couldn’t produce anything.
It was like my anxiety was going 100 miles per hour, and my actual speed of trying to produce something was going about
10 miles per hour. And nothing made any sense.
2. “I was promoted at work 7 months ago into my dream role. It was what I always wanted and strived to get a job like this by the time I was 30. (I'm 27).”
However, “After a month of bliss and feeling totally confident in my ability everything started taking a turn for the worse. What started as feeling like I worked hard to get the role turned to me feeling completely inadequate”
There was a book many years ago called “The Peter Principle” which believed that people are promoted to their level of incompetence.
3. You say, “My anxiety causes me to gag each morning and feel completely numb. I have a racing heart that wakes me from my sleep”
A lot of people take Melatonin from the health food store or the net for sleep, I do and it helps. Some say check with your doctor or druggist to see if it might interfere with any meds you might be taking. My psychiatrist says it OK with her.
4. You say, “When I'm not experiencing anxiety, I feel completely able to execute the role”
The plot thickens on this situation.
5. You add: “The problem is the role has triggered anxiety that is stopping me from being my true self”
6. You noted, as a 27-year-old “As I sat in leadership meetings with people twice my age I began feeling like I didn't belong”
You said you were the leader of a 10 member team. Instead of giving them your ideas, let them give you their ideas. Some of those ideas are not going to be very good either. But some of them might be. You can pick or choose the ones you think are best.
Also, maybe a top member of your team might be a good assistant. Get with that person during or after the meeting and ask for their input as to what might be the best course of action.
Maybe pick two people to be your assistants, maybe representing the other 8 members, or just good idea people on their own.
That way, it won't be all your doings. The pressure will be more
openly divided.
Your sudden rise to stardom reminds me of a professional golfer who had the chance to win a major golf tournament as an amateur, which no golfer had ever done for that event. He didn’t win the tournament, but years later in his career he said he was glad he didn’t, because it could have ruined him, too much success too soon, I think was his point.
Maybe it was management’s fault for promoting you too high, too soon. Maybe they should have let you have some more years of maturity, so you might be better able to handle the job.
You might look around within your company and without, looking for a position which gives you a chance to use your skills, but does not put so much pressure on you.
Which allows you to produce, but does not put you at the top.
Is there any job in your company that you think you might be better suited for?
Could you think about
asking your boss if you could try that job?
Is there a job outside your company that you think you might be better suited for? Would you consider applying for it?
I would say maybe, you can give this job a fair chance, and maybe be looking for something else at the same time.
I think everybody can look back on their jobs, and see huge successes and huge failures.
20/20 hindsight.
I think there are very few examples of smooth sailing from start to finish.
Also, sometimes some of our biggest failings can lead to some our biggest successes.
But it might take the historical perspective 20 years down the road to see that. You won’t see it now, you’re too busy living it. But years from now, you might see this horrible situation as leading to something better. Years from now.
So, try to keep it in the road while you’re going through tough times.
Try to stay positive. One problem at a time, and be positive about
that problem.
27. I was thinking today, when I was in my 20’s and 30’s, I didn’t know beans. But then I reminded myself, but yeah, I was young, and had a lot more energy and ability to do things, which is what employers like.
So one of the things they’re looking at is your youth. But it’s your youth which is giving you problems. I think you’re going to have to try to balance that.
I would say, give the job a chance, be looking at escape hatches, and re-evaluate on a daily basis, if necessary.
Also, enjoy the parts that you can. You’re top drawer. People would kill to get where you are. People would kill to be who you are. Don’t just look at the drawbacks
Try to see the humor of it. “I’m 27, what are they expecting?” Ride it for everything that it’s worth. Look at the benefits. Enjoy them while they last.
Try to help some members of the team who may be having trouble. Don’t be so worried about
yourself. You see what’s wrong with the job, what’s right with it? Look at that, also.
If it doesn’t work out, use it to help someone who is down on their luck, by telling them, “Guess what happened to me one time.”
I once talked to a guy who was a star quarterback for a major college football team. He told me, “I remember being in the huddle calling out the next plays to juniors and seniors, and I was a freshman.” He handled it well.
Pat Jordan did not. He turned it into a book. As a 19 year old, he was a rising star pitcher for a major league baseball organization, and his career fizzled, which he described in humorous fashion.
Turn your experiences, good or bad, into a magazine article.
As the poem says, “You are the captain of your fate, you are the master of your soul.”
Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 5/8/2017 8:02:52 PM (GMT-6)