Perform in the storm

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Reflect, Adjust and Perform – the Three Pillars of Self-Management

Psychology professor Annet de Lange, explains what constitutes effective self-management and which factors are likely to contribute to better personal navigation through the current storm. Learning, setting achievable goals and then achieving them, are the key to cultivating self-efficacy.

Prof. Dr. Annet de Lange on the inner drive for personal progress

Key insights

  • Self-management is a unique human ability: It is comprised of our ability to self-reflect; to adjust to changing circumstances; and to behave in line with our chosen action plan.

  • Specifically, self-efficacy is the ability to create a personal action plan, believe in one’s abilities and carry out the plan successfully: Self-efficacy can be high or low, depending on the extent to which these can be achieved.

  • Self-efficacy defines how you perform in the storm: Good planning coupled with sticking to your desirable behaviour, mark your level of resilience during a crisis. It starts with a willingness to learn and grow from any given situation.

  • Competitiveness may improve performance slightly, but the drive for self-progress yields better and healthier performance results: Figuring out what makes you progress as a human being is less stressful and more effective than comparing yourself to others.

Dive deeper

Can you do what Martin can?

To help you keep your energy levels high and stay positive throughout your day it is essential to take breaks regularly. To help you get more out of your downtime, Martin Pet, a seasoned sport and performance psychologist and physiologist, will challenge you to perform a wide range of exercises that will do just that.

A new challenge from Martin Pet: are you able to keep the cup on your head?
Find out how he does it and why
‘Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving’, Einstein once said. Although it’s pretty sure that the genius wasn’t talking about Martin’s exercise of today, in fact he might as well. Not if you only look at what is happening in this exercise; when Martin starts to move he gets out of balance and is correcting himself continuously. So he seems to unbalance, rather than balance himself when he starts to move. However, from a wider well-being point of view, this kind of recovery gives you much more balance both mentally, emotionally and physically. So not surprisingly, Einstein’s principle can also be applied on well-being.

About the crew member

Annet de Lange • Professor in Work and Organizational Psychology
Annet de Lange

Prof. dr. de Lange works as Professor Work and Organizational Psychology at Open University Heerlen and specializes in succesful aging at work and self-management. She is also a Professor Human Resource Management (Lector) at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen, and an affiliate Professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway.

Your journey until now