So a bit about me.
If I get near the 
sea the first thing I want to do is get out a surf board, paddle out back and wait for my perfect ride. What usually happens is I flounder about and fall off and walk bedraggled back up the beach looking like a middle aged man in a gimp suit. There has to be a market for wet-suits with a built in six pack … surely. Now Occupational Therapy interviews can feel like really scary things, but a post popped into my inbox this week that really made me think about what the top surfers in the world can teach us about managing the stresses and pressures not just about interviews but our working and wider life in general.
So how do surfers and Occupational Therapy interviews overlap?
Magic Seaweed highlighted the personal understanding and acceptance of FEAR in some of the worlds biggest wave surfers. If you have not seen what these guys choose do have a look at the video.
Without exception all highlighted the way in which they choose how they react to the emotions they feel, and particularly how they choose to perceive them. In particular Big Wave Tour Champion Greg Long’s description of how he interprets fear is enlightening –
Fear, is actually a very healthy emotion to feel. I simply interpret it as I have stepped outside of my comfort zone…and that is one of the greatest things to do in the world.
Now the interesting thing is what he is then able to do after re-imagining his fear. He knows it will be part of his experience pretty much the whole time he is surfing but he prepares for those moments precisely because he knows those moments will come. He weighs up all the potential situations in which something should go wrong, as well as what he may do if he acted out of panic. By spending time becoming familiar with the negative responses he is able to spot them early. Similarly by considering and planning for any tough situation he has a thoughtful understanding of the best course of action to achieve whatever goal or overcome whatever obstacle is before him.
Now what can we take from this as a means of helping us cope with the fears of Occupational Therapy interviews?
Well, first off, the acceptance these guys choose to do what they do in the full knowledge that for the majority of the duration they will be terrified. For most of us interviews are not going to be quite so extreme, but knowing that we are going to feel and react differently and accepting this is a good starting point. If nothing else it lets us be kinder to ourselves in the heat of the moment.
Secondly, the act of interpreting the fear in a different way as a sign that we are doing something to stretch ourselves could mean that the more of it we do the more we will be getting comfortable in riding the edge of our own discomfort. SO, get out there and put yourself in these uncomfortable positions regularly will only be helpful. Why do we wait for the jobs we really want to test out how we will react? How might things be if we learnt how we reacted and behaved in interview situations that didn’t matter for jobs we didn’t want?
Thirdly, what would our experience be when it really mattered if we used this knowledge about how we react under pressure to imagine spotting the early signs of something not going well AND having a set of back up plans for how we would react, should the worst happen, developed in the cool light of day?
So some key actions that you can do to help manage your own fears and anxieties around interviews…
- Accept that you will be nervous and not get things spot on … give yourself a break.
- Practice in situations that don’t matter.
- Plan for the best and the worst in every interview situation you could imagine.
Hang loose
Link to original Magic Seaweed article
http://magicseaweed.com/news/how-big-wave-chargers-handle-fear/8829/
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