Your eyes snap open in the dark of the night. The clock tells you it’s 4 a.m. You roll over and try to go back to sleep. But you can’t.
You’re haunted by a persistent feeling of uneasiness. Maybe it’s because of that pending interview or earnings report. Maybe it’s because of the big deal you’re hoping to close or a long-awaited IPO when the market opens. Perhaps you can’t identify any reason at all . . . which merely adds to your disquietude.
You force yourself to relax, which works as well as telling yourself to not think about the problem. One part of your mind urges you to get up, take advantage of the predawn quiet, and get some work done. But you know that if you don’t fall back asleep, you’ll be dead on your feet before your first coffee break, by which time the coffee will be no help at all. Your mind races and your heart hurries to keep pace.
We’ve all experienced this—hopefully, not too often. There seems no solution for those nagging fears and self-doubt that haunt us in the early hours of the morning. But we might find some consolation knowing that the phenomenon is common enough to have its own name, which is the current entry in the Ethical Lexicon:
Uhtceare (uht·ce·a·re/ oot-kih-a-ray) noun
A feeling of anxiety experienced upon waking up suddenly before dawn.
An Old English word meaning, literally, dawn-care, uhtceare is doubly pernicious because it robs us of our desperately needed rest, then adds to the anxiety that woke us up with more anxiety over being unable to get back to sleep. However, there may be a strategy for combating uhtceare that has applications even during daylight hours.
We’re familiar enough with the classic symptoms of anxiety: accelerated heartbeat, shortness of breath, perspiration, trembling, and jumpiness. But there is another common condition that manifests all the same symptoms yet is beneficial rather than detrimental.
What is it? Excitement.
In a state of anxiety, your body produces cortisol to prepare for leaping into action. Trying to calm yourself down works against your body’s chemistry, increasing tension instead of relieving it.
Eager anticipation feels exactly the same. By reframing your sense of foreboding as adventure or opportunity, you don’t eliminate the cause of anxiety but rechannel it, converting it into positive rather than negative emotion. According to HBS assistant professor Alison Wood Brooks, subjects who told themselves: “I am excited,” performed about 20% better in public speaking, karaoke, and cognitive testing.
Anxiety and excitement are both natural responses to an approaching moment of truth. The symptoms we feel are part of the background music of life that cues us to pay attention and get ready for each opportunity waiting for us around the next corner. How we process those signals determines which classic response we choose: fight, flight, or freeze.
So why do we seem to default to anxiety? Often, because of self-doubt and a lack of confidence. The underlying reason for feeling doubtful or dubious can usually be traced to one of three different factors:
We don’t trust ourselves. Have we held ourselves responsible by preparing for what we need to do? Without adequate planning and preparation, we might be fully justified in questioning whether we have the competence necessary to succeed.
We don’t trust our resources. Do we have the training, tools, and support to get the job done? Being expected to perform a task outside our skill set or without adequate resources is a recipe for failure.
We don’t trust the system. Do we suspect that the game might be rigged against us? When we step up to the plate, we need to anticipate a fair playing field. Fear of spitballs and unreliable umpires will inevitably undermine our performance.
This is why ethical culture is critical for competent performance. In a healthy work environment, employees from top to bottom have good reason to believe they are properly prepared and equipped to do their jobs, that good work will produce good results, that evaluations will be fair, and that coworkers will be supportive and encouraging. In such a setting, there is no reason for self-doubt or fear of failure, because we know from experience that if we stumble along the way others will swiftly step forward to protect us from falling.
Culture reflects leadership. Team members become team players only when the coach, the manager, and the entire franchise share a common vision and the commitment to turn that vision into reality.
Such a culture generates positive and profitable energy. You might still wake up at 4 a.m., but you won’t be experiencing uhtceare. Instead of anxiety, your mind will be buzzing with the hum of excitement as you look forward to a day of purpose, progress, and productivity.
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