I was talking with a CEO client today who was preparing for his next board meeting, and he was stressed. He was getting angry at the slightest provocation.
And together, we identified a program running in the background of his mind.
It goes something like this–
1. If it’s not perfect, they won’t like me.
2. It they don’t like me, they will fire me.
3. If they fire me, my spouse will leave me.
4. If my spouse leaves me, I will die broke and alone.
We’ve been working together long enough that we can see the “DBA” (Die Broke and Alone) program showing up whenever he is under stress.
Just like malware, that program has unauthorized access and leads to bad results.
The first step to getting rid of human malware is to become conscious of it. And while you might not be able to completely delete it, you can prevent it from doing further damage.
When you are under stress, are you conscious of the story your brain is running in the background?