Unpleasant situation is any thing that you perceive you are not comfortable to be in that moment. Something that may seem trivial to some may be incredibly difficult for others. Could be as simple as initiating a conversation with some one new, a small change in their daily activity or something adverse with regards to the situation in their current life at home or at work. The emotions felt could range widely as well - state of panic, angry, irritation, anxiety and general hesitancy in accepting the anticipated change.

Here's how I deal with them -

Step 1 - Certain core attributes every one has, although in varying levels - such as Resiliency, Patience, Adaptability, Empathy show up in behaviors when Mind perceives, senses any situation as "insecure". The key lies in becoming aware when this insecurity arises in the Mind and Focusing on - "What key attribute is required now that can help me". The very second you focus on this question - naturally you tend to focus on solution than the Problem and the immediate reaction to escape

In my case had to deal with a certain adversity at work where in due to business reasons and an acquisition, had to deal with changes with regards to change in work, added more responsibilities, which is out of comfort zone and the current skills were not sufficient to support. The key attribute that's needed for me was "Patience" - Accept the fact that things have changed.

Step 2 - The Mind/thoughts races between past and future with crazy imaginations running havoc. The key is to Understand that's the Nature of the Mind. Both Past and Future are time bound, which is not in any one's control but to give into it is very poisonous. The focus should always be in the Now - Focus on what am I required to learn, understand to deal with the situation better.

In my case it was understanding this monstrous application that I am suddenly entrusted with a small team to support with no prior knowledge, spotty documentation to help and since this is a key critical app in terms of making money to the organization - have to deal with regular support issues that were reported by consumers.

Step 3 - This might sound like a cliche - Break the Bigger problem down to smaller tasks - Define a process of addressing it and change the definition of success to adhering to the process and NOT thinking of the big problem any more.

In my case since we had to deal with the of an app - we decided to identify the critical path of the application, which is crucial to understand and support - Broke it down to smaller modules and time bound it to hold accountability to define the process to focus on. This led us to identify carefully identified steps that have to be completed to understand the complete application.

Step 4 - Focus on Sharing

A crucial element that helps when working on the defined small task is asking this - "what am I learning, which i can share to others?" - The focus on Sharing opens up different avenues, such as "How can I be more creative in sharing my learnings" and is there any thing different that I can do in the defined process to make it better for me and my team to improve?

In my case this led to an internal knowledge portal for all to share their learning and also helped us identify a new application that potentially can be created to service external customers better, Identifying additional skills training that may help the team.

Step 5 - Skills enhancement

This is the last step, which will give more sense of security with regards to what new skill that are required to acquire to make the transition from Unknown to Known. These mostly involves repetitions of certain tasks to become more familiar - In my case it was learning a technology which most were not familiar with - Taking external classes, working on sample applications to get more familiar were the steps that we took to get more comfortable.

Doing this exercise will prepare you to handle the next time you are dealt with more clearly and more importantly the core attributes that define your behavior is enhanced as well.