Barack Obama was famous during his presidency because of his always calm and relaxed appearance in public. Sometimes the media called it "No Obama drama" and not always in the positive sense.
Speaking at a technology conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, hosted by software company Qualtrics, he acknowledged that there was something real in the media nickname. But he added that no matter how calm he seemed to others, when he was younger, he still felt depressed for fear of making a mistake.
"I have a uniform temperament and I never feel too high or low in humor. But this does not mean that throughout my presidency and professional career there have not been moments when I was not nervous thinking “Oh my God, I do not want people to feel disappointed in me, I do not want to be seen as someone who has "He made a mistake or he failed," he said.
It was during his second term that he experimented with what he described as a "liberation from his fears", and this helped him to have a better performance in office. "Undoubtedly during my second term "I was a better president than I was in the first, and that did not depend on analysis or politics," Obama said.
"It has to do with what happens in any career - whether in sports, pedagogy or whatever - when you have enough experience, enough repetitive situations, and knowing the nature of the problems, you start focusing on the task and not on it. "No matter how good you are at it, self-confidence comes with it."
He said that was the behavior he held during the negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal, where he tried to persuade Iran to destroy its nuclear weapons program, and on the Paris Climate Agreements, a historic agreement between governments around the world.
Learning how to feel comfortable dealing with large and complex problems, Obama says he no longer worries about making mistakes. Instead, he realized, “You know what, I accepted that fact. "And if I make a mistake, I will find out how to fix it, I will learn from him."
He did not focus on poll figures or experts, but on "advancing this vision that I have, and I hope there will be room for a better US," he said. But from experience comes more than just self-confidence.
Obama also took some deliberate steps to stay focused. This included the "do not read what the media says about you" approach. He has not read (and does not watch) social media comments, nor does he see analysts on television.
This includes not only people who criticize it, but also those who appreciate it. "If people compliment you too much, you will end up thinking you know more than you actually know," Obama said, noting that this can lead to a bloated ego, which is just as harmful.
He began to regard as a source of distraction all those public comments about him: "Comments are not useful to me to do the job or solve a problem, rather they are intended to feed possible anxieties."
And these techniques can work for anyone:
1. Spend time as a student, gathering information from people who know more about a topic than you do. Obama says he constantly asks questions until he is inside the situation, sometimes asking his experts to be more understandable or to explain things in plain language.
2. Focus on the activity that you are able to contribute. Do your homework. Do your best and believe that if a mistake or problem occurs, you can repeat the same process to solve it and learn from it.
3. Do not fill your head with what people say about you, good or bad. Keep your job like this, do not take anything personal. ”One of the ways I give this advice to my daughters is: paradoxically, by removing your ego from what you do, you will be liberated and eventually you will be in able to behave better and more carefree "- he said. / Business Insider - Bota.al
