Change Your Life in 4 Seconds. Really.
In the time it takes you to take one deep breath you can dismantle your focus into a state of stressful self sabotage or prepare your body for action. In his book, Four Seconds, Peter Bregman explains how to use that breath to optimize your daily performance and produce better habits. In stressful environments it seems to be innate in human nature to react in a way that will actually make the situation worse. Yelling, picking a fight, reworking the same mental path over and over. Shifting this behavior requires a pause to reassess and consider your actions. One deep breath is a chance to change trajectories and make a choice to react differently for new results. 
Trade In Making Goals For A Better Technique
So now that you are breathing instead of stressing where do you place your attention? A goal? Surprisingly, goals are actually a bad idea since the hard perimeters of a goal can tempt you to cheat or push yourself into risk unnecessarily. Instead, use an area of focus. An example would be instead of focusing on the goal of higher revenue create an area of focus to talk with more customers. By focusing on an action step you can reasonably do something about you will actually make more progress towards the desired end than if you only focused on the number goal. However, most stressful situations are not when we are planning for the months ahead but they occur in the moment when deadlines are imminent and fast thinking is crucial. How do we calmly prepare for the unexpected? The key is to prepare a process, not a solution. First, take a deep breath and think about the situation. What is the desired outcome? Second, given my resources and the information I have available to me how can I achieve my desired outcome? Last, make a decision and stick to it realizing it may not be ideal but it is the best option considering the circumstances.
Emotions Aren't Always Helpful
In addition to a difficult decision, the content may not come in the friendliest packaging. Instead of being told calmly by a customer that there is an issue with the product you will likely have the problem served in your lap with an extra helping of anger and aggression. It is difficult not to respond to the top layer of emotion instead of the underlying issue that you should actually address. When faced with a poor communication pause and take a breath to separate the emotions from the situation so you are able to work towards the desired result of a solved customer service issue.
Next time life throws a set of seemingly impossible choices and scenarios your way pause, take a deep breath and take control of the situation and yourself.
