NickVenturella.com 1-21-23 - Give yourself grace and space

How is your year panning out so far? Hit reply and let me know, I’d love to hear about it.

Mine is definitely off to the races.

I’ve officially transitioned into my new full-time job, but I’m a bit tired. I’ll tell you why and how it might help you…

Transitions in life from the familiar to the unknown always force your brain to narrow in and expend energy to change focus. My understanding is that this is your primal “lizard” brain trying to quickly assess the unknown as a good or bad situation – your human nature is trying to determine your next course of action:  fight, flight, or freeze.

In our modern society it usually isn’t quite as dire as “lizard” brain makes it out to be. However, it can certainly cause anxiety.

As I take a moment to step back after two weeks in a new job, here’s what I’m unpacking for myself, which may help you with transitions too…

The job transition is definitely taking a lot of my mental energy at the moment. Because I’m learning lots of new information I’m being forced to concentrate more. As a result my brain is burning more mental calories than usual to pave a new neurological path to this new information.

In other words, I don’t yet have established experiential knowledge surrounding this new job that would allow much of my day-to-day job interactions to become somewhat habitual in nature (aka established job routines).

In comparison, after 7 years in my old job I knew what to do, who to connect with for various answers to questions, where I can best use my skills to accomplish solutions to work challenges, etc… Much of the mental framework in action there was due to positive work habits that allowed my brain to run on auto-pilot, so to speak. That saved mental calories, which allowed me to focus those calories elsewhere, or at least distribute them more widely across more tasks. 

I’m not yet in that place at the new job, so by the end of the work day my mental energy is just depleted. I’ve noticed that having to focus on the new job has caused me to max out my mental capacity – my ability to spend additional mental energy on other tasks and decisions in other parts of my life.

Why is this important to pay attention to in your life?

That current imbalance of mental focus starts to become overwhelming and can manifest as stress. A feeling that I have more things to do that I’m responsible to others for than I feel I can reasonably accomplish in my current available time.

That’s when you know…

That building sense of overwhelm is when you know it’s time to reprioritize, even if temporarily, to give yourself grace and space to wade through the new thing and establish positive habits that, in time, will become more routine. Once those routines are in place, conserving your mental calories, you will be able to redistribute your focus with the right balance to handle everything you need to, without, or at least with less, stress.Be well!

----------Updates----------upcoming Madison, WI-area live music performancesMore shows are in the works, stay tuned.Hop Haus Brewing Co.Verona, WISat. Jan. 28, 20236 - 8pmHop Haus Brewing Co.Verona, WISat. March 4, 20236 - 8pm----------First guitar sale of 2023A quick proud dad moment...my oldest son helped me build this guitar that just sold. He's 13 and into the Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) video game characters. One of the characters in the game plays guitar, so we combined our interests and built a real-life version of the FNAF character, Bonnie's, guitar. I'm trying to teach my son a lot of things, especially about money and entrepreneurship, so it was cool to see his reaction when the sale came through online yesterday. Plus, he's excited that he gets to keep the revenue from this guitar sale.The FNAF GuitarCheck out nickVguitars here:New NickVguitars trucker-style hat available on my sites:

Stay positive. Stay healthy. Be kind.Sincerely,Nick VenturellaStrategic/Creative ProfessionalNickVenturella.com