Anxiety is like the obnoxious relative on Facebook who won't stop posting on your wall -- it just never goes away. Contrary to what people believe about their neurotic coworkers, it’s not something they take out at work and pack up before getting on the subway home.
Anxiety is like the obnoxious relative on Facebook who won't stop posting on your wall -- it just never goes away. Contrary to what people believe about their neurotic coworkers, it’s not something they take out at work and pack up before getting on the subway home.
It’s a nagging that eats away at you constantly, a voice in your head that won’t go away, an exhausting presence you just want to put to bed.
Fortunately, what destroys your personal life saves your work one. There’s no greater asset in business than neuroticism and anxiety. If you want someone to get something done, choose the employees with the crippling anxiety.
Find people who are anxious about everything and you can bet their borderline OCD tendencies they'll get the job done -- even if it's just for the sake of their own mental states.
If you want to date or befriend someone with anxiety, however, it’s a different kind of outcome. People with anxiety don’t work in real life the way they work in the office.
The benefits of their neuroticism don’t translate. You don't date someone with anxiety betting on a star performance and an easy day's work.
What works great at work seems to have the opposite effect in relationships and healthy adult activities. This crippling anxiety destroys every good thing that comes along and tries to make fun times just uncomfortable ones.
People who suffer from severe anxiety know while they may be ballin' at work, they're flailing in life.
In your professional life, you’ll never be late; in your personal life, you’re always waiting around.
With anxiety, you’re always on time. You plan everything out, from your train commute to the walk across the street, taking into account the seconds you could be stopped at red lights.
In life, however, your punctuality is just a nuisance. You’re always early and always waiting for someone. Your obsessive timing makes you the first one at every party, the only one at happy hour and your friend's doorman's best friend.
You’re constantly getting pissed at your friends for timing their commutes wrong, taking way too long to get ready and refusing to plan ahead.
In your professional life, you’re eager to please the right people; in your personal life, you’re pleasing everyone but yourself.
You’re scared of pissing anyone off, so you’re everyone’s favorite employee. You’re dependable, reliable and shoved just the right amount up your boss’s ass. This helps you climb the corporate ladder and make friends in the right places.
But in the real world, you’re just a people pleaser. You can’t remember the last time you did something for yourself or decided on a plan that was your idea.
You spend all your free time helping others instead of worrying about yourself.
In your professional life, you need to keep your head in the game; in your personal life, you need to get out of your head.
All those thoughts running through your head at work keep you focused and on task. You're on the ball, in the game and constantly thinking about your next move.
In your personal life, you're spacey and paranoid, and you don't know what enjoying the moment even looks like. The qualities keeping you ahead at work are just adding to the ulcer you have brewing at home.
In your professional life, you make bank; in your personal life, you can't even bank on yourself.
At work, there's a clear goal, a finish point and a channel for all your anxiety. You have purpose and clear direction. You know what you're stressing about and you're turning it into a profitable, money-making activity.
In life, you don't have a purpose for all your anxiety. You're stressing and have nowhere to take your stress. Half the time, you don't even know what you're anxious about.
In your professional life, your stress makes you organized; in your personal life, your sh*t is everywhere.
You're never going to misplace a report or misfile a paper; you're an organized machine. You have systems, color coding and those obsessive-compulsive tendencies to keep your desk clean and your emails deleted in a timely fashion.
In your personal life, you're messy, all over the place and you don't have time to deal with cleaning your room. Your mind is too preoccupied with millions of other things to worry about getting your sh*t together.
You can't possibly have a panic attack and clean the fridge at the same time.
In your professional life, it’s about trying to be perfect; in your personal life, you never will be.
The most tiring battle of all is the pursuit of perfection. At work, you can achieve a certain amount of it, but in life, you'll never get close.
In the office, you can measure your successes, avoid pitfalls and mistakes, rate your performance. In life, you don't have so much control.
Your anxiety doesn't help you keep organized and stay on top of things. It only exacerbates things when they're going wrong.
You'll never be able to control every aspect of your life, you'll never have a perfect week or get a bonus for doing a good job. All you can do is make the best of the chaotic, stressful and imperfect mess you call life.
