This one post is rather spontaneous than planned. I was having a writer’s block before and then I decided to re-read my old blog, the one I wrote when I was in university. I found one article and I think it will be nice to re-write it. And though I can just copy and paste the words here, for the purpose of having a consistent writing style, I have to re-make the article. Please enjoy 🙂
Several days ago I re-opened my postgraduate personal development plan assignment. For that assignment, I had to create a survey and ask people (obviously those who knew me) what they see as my strength and weakness. I saw a consistency in the respondents’ answers. Most of them thought that calm, well organized, well prepared, very detail in planning, and a good planner are my strengths. I didn’t realize that I am such a person, until the survey. The survey was conducted a little bit more than a year ago. And today, during my visit to my blog that I wrote five years ago, I found a piece of writing about keeping calm. I was sharing how I learned to keep calm in that article. There were seven ways to keep calm that somehow worked for me. Guess what? The second one was to be well-planned. So, who I was in 2016 (I hope it is still who I am now), has been there since five – or many more – years ago. Characters and habits take a good deal of time to built, yes?
Here’s the 7 ways to keep calm (as written in 2012, but I edited the explanation a little bit).
- Pray. Before anything, pray. Sometimes we do everything first, then pray last. Well, it should be the other way around. God promises that He will not burden anyone beyond what he can bear. So this is a very good reason to stay calm and not over-worried about something.
- Arrange the schedule and don’t be a deadliner. There comes a time when we have too much on our plate. The only way to sort them out is to get all of them done. Make plans, set a priority rank for each task, and do it one by one. Having an everyday to-do list is a life savior. And never delay what we can do now because, as wise man said, later sometimes become never.
- Make sure to have some fun. Even in the most hectic time and the hardest situation, allow yourself to have some fun once in a while. It is important to keep ourselves calm and to release the stress. Don’t go too overboard, but do have fun.
- Self-assuring. Repeat to yourself that this too shall pass. Remind your self to be calm. Take a deep breath. And do it all over again every time you are about to explode.
- Be opportunist. This may sounds negative but what I actually meant was to realize when an opportunity comes and to know when to take it. This will get things done even quicker and solve problems too. Thus, no need to be anxious and worry.
- Focus. Multitask is the opposite of a catalyst. It will lower our productivity. We can handle so many things at the same period of time. But each of them has to has a slot time. Focus on one task at a time. This is why point number 2 is utterly important.
- Pray. Again. When we have put all our efforts, pray. ‘God, please do not make this world as our biggest concern.’ If nothing is a big concern, then why worry, right?
Keep calm, and… well, just keep calm because it feels good.
By the way, if you want to read the original article, you may read it here.
♥ Atiqah Zulfa Nadia
atiqahzulfanadia.com 