by Stephanie Schwartz, M.S. 

I fit the typical graduate student profile of being highly conscientious and motivated to succeed. While I generally view these as positive aspects of my personality, at times I feel anxiety about my constant desire to excel at all I do. I tend to be on top of my responsibilities – I’m very organized, like to plan, and often get things done in advance. However, external events and other people don’t always allow for me to do things my preferred way. When something blocks me from being able to achieve what I would like to do, how I would like it done, or when I would like it done, beliefs run through my head such as, “I can’t stand having to wait to do this” and “I can’t stand that this may not be done to my standards.”  Irrational beliefs such as these lead me to feel anxious and when I’m feeling this way I don’t perform as well on other tasks. The functional dispute works well for me to challenge these thoughts. I can recognize that having these beliefs is not helping me to accomplish what I would like and is in fact keeping me from accomplishing my other goals. Instead I could think, “I would strongly prefer to do this now; however, I can stand having to wait to do it.” This rational belief still leads me to feel a negative emotion, like concern, but I do not have the unhealthy negative emotion of anxiety, and am able to continue working effectively to achieve my goals.

Stephanie Schwartz