24.10.2024

ARE YOU A SHARK, DOLPHIN, WHALE OR JELLYFISH AND WHICH TYPE ACHIEVES SUCCESS

You don't feel like working today. But not at all. You can barely muster up the energy to get ready and go to work. And there you grope and nothing bothers you. Well today is just a jellyfish day for you.

Humans are wired to seek to use their physical resources most efficiently. You haven't slept for some reason and your body is telling you to conserve your strength. So you are not very lively this week, drifting back and forth with the current just like that spindly sea animal. Or you feel a burst of energy and crush task after task like a shark.

People have different types of energy on different days. But still they constantly have a dominant one. According to one theory, you could be any of four types of sea animals.

Sharks are the ones who have a lot of energy, but it is also negative. They are ambitious, love challenges and throw themselves enthusiastically at them, so they often achieve success. They especially get excited during competition. However, they are ready not only to compete, but to literally bite their rivals.

They are not good team players, because they are difficult to work together precisely because of their large dose of negative energy. They have days when the whole world is their fault and everyone is their fault. Then they are even more likely to bite - even without reason, and are difficult to endure from colleagues.

Although energetic, sharks are controversial as bosses. They motivate by instilling fear in their subordinates. To some extent this works. But in general, their behavior is burdensome, and if they do not learn to keep their shark temper within tolerable limits, they can fail in their leadership role.

Dolphins are overflowing with positive energy, and that's exactly what makes them winners. They are also ambitious, but unlike sharks, they are team players and can inspire. Because they are full of enthusiasm, their colleagues want to work with them. They also tend to help others, making them even more desirable partners. They often become informal leaders in the team.

The downside is that because everyone is on their side, they lack opposition. If they don't have self-control, they can get stuck in a routine.

It is the dolphins who become the dream bosses. However, they must find a way at the right times to be constructive, ie. not to allow their subordinates to take advantage of their positive energy and be lazy.

Whales are not too energetic. Like large marine mammals, they are rather clumsy. But they are powerful and when they start a job, they finish it. It may become too slow to survive the competition of the faster and fiercer. However, they are good-natured and rarely clash with their colleagues. They are not the most valuable people in the team, but they are not unpleasant either.

In general, whales have a hard time becoming bosses.

Jellyfish have little energy and it is negative. They are not proactive, they are not productive, they like to go with the flow. But they do not understand that their behavior lacks activity and this is their big problem.

They usually blame others and are angry with everyone. They especially hate those colleagues who are "fiddling" - they accuse them of excessive ambition, pushiness and other similar sins. No one wants to be on a team with them.

They also generally shouldn't be promoted to bosses. But when by some misunderstanding it happens, the grief is for their subordinates.

Whichever type you are, you can make an effort to manage your energy properly if you think about it and classify yourself honestly.

It's not easy, but if you recognize a shark in yourself, try to hold back and don't bite often when you have to work in a team. If you can't, try choosing a profession where you compete against competitors as an individual player. For example, become a lawyer.

When you define yourself as a dolphin, you have to consider when to bring in some shark energy. There are cases in which it is not possible without showing teeth to your competitors in order to win.

Whales can try to be better organized to be faster. They may not succeed in being even ferocious, but if they manage to arrange their priorities correctly, they will overcome their clumsiness.

For the jellyfish, they need to make themselves more proactive by thinking about why they are in a position to just float with the waves. The answer is very possible that they are tired of this work, that they no longer have any drive to do it. They stay on it because they don't have the energy to get out. It doesn't sound good at all, and neither does the definition "jellyfish" itself. So the very awareness of it can become a motivation for change.

---- Are you drifting along because you don't get enough sleep?

Psychologists claim that many workers do not notice how they turn from dolphins into jellyfish because they do not get enough sleep.

Energetic, ambitious and inspired, they at some point become overloaded (or the boss overloads them) with more tasks than they could do well. As a result, they begin to not rest enough time to recharge their batteries. Their efficiency decreases, they live in stress of not succeeding. Their sleep becomes poor quality. Their productivity drops even more and they become clumsy whales. They are not felt and gradually turn into jellyfish. Not only do they not take initiative, but they also put off what they are assigned to do. They spin in a vicious circle in which they lose more and more of their energy.

The direct link between sleep and procrastination has been proven by research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

The scientists surveyed people with different professions and from different economic sectors - finance, trade, construction, education, healthcare, etc. The volunteers were asked to monitor and record their sleep quality and tendency to procrastinate. The survey lasted 10 consecutive working days.

The results showed that, in all cases, the lack of a good night's sleep inevitably leads to an increase in the frequency and tendency to postpone duties the next day.

This effect was also strongly dependent on self-control. People who had low levels of self-control were significantly more affected by sleep deprivation than those who had the willpower to manage their feelings.

The study showed a significant difference in the frequency of procrastination between volunteers with low self-control and those with higher self-control when both groups experienced a lack of quality sleep. The differences became significantly smaller when they started the day rested after a long and full sleep.

However, strong will cannot be infinite. With a constant lack of quality sleep, the body is exhausted. Fatigue can no longer be compensated for by any self-control.

The conclusions of the study are several. One is that how often you procrastinate doesn't depend so much on some personality trait—laziness, say. A much more significant role is played by your susceptibility to an external factor such as lack of sleep. It makes you procrastinate, and for a while you can overcome this urge with the awareness that you have to do the work and with the will. But this cannot be permanent.

So the most important conclusion of the study is that if you want to get rid of the danger of running out of energy, you need to pay more attention to sleep. Not only in quantity, but also in quality.

One of the most effective ways to improve the quality of your sleep is to follow a schedule - going to bed and getting up at the same time every day. Add to this a ban on using the smartphone and the computer at least 2-3 hours before going to bed, experts advise. The reason is that the light from their screens prevents the release of melatonin - the so-called sleep hormone.