What does too much stress and not enough stress have in common? They are both bad for you. How could too little stress be bad you might ask. Because without some degree of stress (preferably eustress), we will not do what we need to do in order to live, grow and be happy. Some level of stress keeps us alert and it motivates and drives us. When stress gets too high, people shut down. When stress is too low, people also shut down. There is an optimum level of stress that we should seek out and maintain. Try this. Put a price tag on the tasks you do each day to optimize your stress level. Let us say there are $5.00 an hour tasks and $25.00 an hour tasks? If you spend too much or too little each day, your stress will go too high or too low. Here are some ways to maintain your daily tally.
Which would you think would be the easier and more tension relieving if you could pick between the two? The $5.00 an hour task or the $25.00 an hour task? Of course, the $5/hour tasks. Examples of this type of task may be cleaning your desk, organizing you files, forwarding jokes, etc. Some of these are important tasks, but they are certainly not key tasks. What do most people do in life? They focus on that which is tension relieving ($5/hour tasks) versus goal achieving. They almost never venture into the $25/hour tasks. If you want to know what makes one person more successful than another when we are all basically in the same boat, it boils down to one thing. Successful people do, whether they want to or not, those tasks which unsuccessful people put off, avoid or don't do. Successful people do those tasks which have the highest potential for a payoff even though they are not fun and easy.
A key strategy is to ask yourself, whether you are job searching or working at your current job, is what I am doing, or about to do, a task that someone would pay $25/hour for? Or, is this a task worth $25/hour? Every job has a couple of key tasks and unique skills that pay the big dividends. Focus and get better at those. If you mostly do the tasks that have the greatest payoff, and you don't screw around with co-workers or waste time on the Internet, than you are assured of success.
If a successful day costs $100 dollars, and your tally at closing time ads up to $300 or $25, than you do not have balance. Coming in too high or too low is going to lead to stress. Do you feel good about yourself when you do $5/hour tasks all day long? No chance. You have wasted a day and you know it. In an effort to avoid stress, you have actually given yourself the worst stress of all. If you over do it and do not occasionally work in some $5/hour tasks you are not going to have the relaxed, pleasant, and creative demeanor you need to perform at your highest level with people.
Nobody likes to do many things in life, like spending an entire weekend job searching and preparing yourself. It is much more pleasant to hang out and watch TV, go shopping, do yard work, or sit on the porch. If you are putting in a real effort and are focusing on tasks that have a high payoff, you may have stress that builds up and that you should lower. We have some ideas below. If you are stressed out about finding a job, and you are watching hours of TV, chatting with friends, writing emails, and reading useless news stories all day long, these suggestions are not for you. These are for people who invested 20 hours on Saturday and Sunday looking for a job.
For relieving stress, try the following.
- Exercise (just do it, start slow, go for a walk, but exercise)
- Get enough sleep.
- Stay in the moment. It is the only thing you have complete control over.
- Give thanks, be extremely grateful.
- Get and stay organized.
- Honor your mind and body.
- Avoid alcohol.
- Take action and keep taking action.
- Don't beat yourself up. Just do your best.
- Stop reading job descriptions and start sending your resume.
- Write out some goals. Make a list of things you want and add to it.
- Skip the news and negative websites / blogs.
- Learn and enjoy cooking, gardening, or another past time.
- Read something uplifting or motivating. Read something.
- Avoid negative people. Don't argue with your family.
- Listen to self-improvement audio.
- Call a family member and say hi.
- Go hang around a bookstore and explore the different sections.
- Make a plan for the day.
- Learn to meditate, or go sit in a room for 30 minutes alone.
- Turn off the TV and Radio.
- Stop worrying about things you have no control over.
- Never complain, Never explain.
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