In This Edition:

1. Approaching Half the Year
2. Conscious Choices, More Completions
3. Complete on Two Fronts
4. The Completion that Keeps On Paying Off
5. From Breakdowns to Breakthroughs

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Approaching Half the Year

Can it be? The NBA finals are in full swing. All the kids are out of school. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is blown to smithereens. The humidity is ready to roll in and yes, June 30, halfway through 2006, doth approach! Who knows where the time goes? Actually, I know: it is frittered away by an endless sea of choices, most of them unconscious. That's why it's vital to make pronounced choices about what you want and how you wish to feel.

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Conscious Choices, More Completions

Choices, as I refer to them here, are positive affirmations that help you move closer to feeling how you want to feel and accomplishing what you want to get done. Choices are not synonymous with "positive thinking." Unlike positive thinking, you make your conscious choices on a on a regular basis regardless of how you might happen to feel at any given moment. The key is to keep making them.

Choices facilitate completions (see www.breathingspace.com/completions) because sometimes there are components of a task or project that are out of our control. To gain a sense of satisfaction and closure, we can rely upon a completion statement such as "I choose to feel complete about this project," when no other form of closure realistically will be possible. This is particularly true in the case when:

your contribution may be one of many to some larger project, or

you work with others by telephone or e-mail and are geographically dispersed.

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Complete on Two Fronts

Making choices also helps you to become complete in the case of accomplishing something that has a psychological as well as a physical component. Suppose, you have to do something that you've been putting off. You'd prefer to get it done and at the same time, you know that when you're finished, you'll have mixed feelings about what transpired.

A prime case is if you have to terminate someone at work. You don't want to be the bad guy, but it is your responsibility, and the situation certainly merits termination. When you've completed the task, no matter how effective you've been, you still may have lingering psychological ramifications.

No matter how good you feel about yourself, how well the day is going, and how appropriate your actions have been, to put a capper on the deed, it may be entirely advisable and even necessary to turn to completion statements in the form of conscious choices about how you would like to feel. For example, these kinds of statements are helpful:

I choose to feel complete about the task.

I choose to feel complete about my performance as a manager.

I choose to feel complete about the challenging aspects of my job. These may also prove useful to you:

I choose to maintain balance and composure in the face of job-related challenges.

I choose to take appropriate action for the good of the department or company.

I choose to be a confident decision maker.

Many completion statements in the form of conscious choices also are helpful if made before actually having to handle the challenging task. Also, such choices can be applied to other types of challenges that you face throughout the day and week.

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The Completion that Keeps On Paying Off

One of the essential choices you can make on a continuous basis to feel worthy and complete in a variety of situations is to simply affirm to yourself, "I choose to feel worthy and complete." This can help you reduce anxiety, remain calm, and feel more relaxed throughout the day.

When you choose to feel worthy and complete, instantly, you tend to redirect yourself. You recognize that virtually everything you do is based on your choice. You can continue working on a particular task, specifically those that have been assigned to you, and choose to remain productive and balanced in its completions.

You can even choose to acknowledge your completions each day.

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From Breakdowns to Breakthroughs Thinking

Suppose your car breaks down; you're stranded. The tow truck finally arrives and now you're two hours behind schedule. You decide it's going to be a lousy day, and many people might agree with you. There is another way to proceed. You can then choose to be thankful that the delay was only two hours.

If you have work with you, you can stay productive. Give yourself a completion for having handled the morning's mini-ordeal. In this manner, you free up the psychic energy that might have been bottled up within your frustration. Once your car is ready, you are energized to reclaim your day. Here are other examples on how to move from potential breakdown to breakthrough by choosing how you want to feel, acknowledging where you are, and what you want to accomplish:

Breakdown: New software comes with a thick instruction manual. You plow through the instructions. The going is slow and tedious. You'd rather do things the old way. Breakthrough: New software will be a challenge to learn. Your investment of a few days will be repaid in your long-term productivity. You attack the project with vigor.

Breakdown: So many items compete for your attention that you could scream. You can't get to them all, and you hardly know where to start. It seems to get worse daily. Breakthrough: You make tough decisions about what to drop versus what merits action. You clear out the lesser items and dive headlong into the most vital one.

Here's a tough one. Breakdown: You've just learned that you're being fired and you're devastated. Thinking back about your career, it looks like one big failure. You are immobilized. Breakthrough: You've heard the bad news and are shocked. You have wages and benefits coming and you resolve to make this a time for renewal and redirection!