Coworkers and significant others to get more done, and sooner. Much about stress is positive and healthy. In weight training, stress is an essential element for muscle growth. Similarly, stress is essential for growth in other facets of your life. Too much in your life, you will want to have your own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual blowout preventers in place.
The Physical Blowout Preventer:
Proper exercise and good eating practices contribute to a healthy body. A healthy, properly fueled body can handle more stress in a more productive manner than a neglected body. Of course, properly fueled means sufficient amounts of needed foods, liquids, oxygen and rest. Rest is the most overlooked of these needs. Getting 7-8 hours of rest each night, and arising earlier, have been shown to increase effectiveness and productivity.
The Emotional Blowout Preventer:
Negative emotions are costly generators of stress. When a supervisor or another individual knowingly, or unknowingly, promotes fear, anger or defensiveness, your stress mounts, followed by a giant sucking sound as your energy and productivity go down the drain. You have the ability to increase your capacity to deal with the emotional stress in your life. The emotional blowout preventer is made up of such things as properly developed empathy, self-control and self-confidence. It is energizing to watch a coaching client reduce stress by strengthening an emotional muscle and allowing his or her self-confidence to grow.
The Mental Blowout Preventer:
You need to be able to focus and concentrate on the tasks at hand. To succeed at this, there are many things you can do. Some of these things include: (1) Mentally preparing for the job to be performed. (2) Visualizing the desired outcome. (3) Managing time (actually activities) effectively. Also, your mind needs to rest and recover after exertion. Unfortunately, the express and implied workplace directive for increased productivity is to work harder for longer periods of time. The consequences of insufficient mental rest and recovery are mistakes in judgment, lower creativity and failure to account for some risks. The key to recovery is intermittent rest.
The Spiritual Blowout Preventer:
This is not necessarily a religious matter. You need a set of personal core values and the attendant conviction and courage to live by those values. Other words for this might be character or integrity. You get spiritual strength to fend off stress by connecting to the values that are motivating and inspiring to you, and by conducting yourself in a manner that is congruent with those values.
You may not be able to control the causes of stress in your life, but there are ways you can increase your capacity to handle these challenges. Properly developed personal blowout preventers will help you manage and reduce the stress. This will result in your becoming more effective, productive and creative in your personal and professional lives.
If you have any questions, feel free to give me a phone call at 303-225-0328. There is never a charge for my consultation time, whether talking to me on the phone or in person. Yes, you read correctly, my consultation time is always free.