Prevent the Festive Fall

I know, I know, bah humbug and all that, I'm the Festive Grinch, but this is important and it will soon be upon us!

Whilst the Festive Period for most is a magical time of the year, it is also the most challenging for many.

Take a look at the 15 drivers of Pressure and Stress below and think about how these are amplified for some.

It's really quite easy to add to the fact that during a time of supposed joy, if one is struggling with health, financial and/or relationship difficulties, stress levels can go through the roof, because it's a negative when when many others are lapping up the postive.

What's our role, do we put too much on ourselves, can we control things like normal!

Are things suddenly different, have we got a strong support network around us, are we being treated well, or dishing out poor treatment?

Are we going to rest enough, exercise enough, eat and drink well enough?

Are we going to over extend, have fun, share the love?

I could write examples all day, but I expect you are already thinking of everything that is jumping into my head right now.

So what's the answer?

If I was advising someone I would say that these things have probably been affecting you for sometime, and the time of the year is amplifying them. So my advice is to consider all 15 of the drivers of stress and see how you can improve your relationship with them all, and everything associated with them. Then for those you can demonstrably ramp up, e.g. exercise, ramp them up to the x2 and buy yourself stress credits!

Stress credits can be found and can offset against drivers you just can't tackle right now.

Help yourself, help your loved ones and help your team or workforce build their resilience for the Festive Period to avoid the Festive Fall. It could be as simple as a conversation, and if you ever need a facilitator for this, or more, you know where I am.

Colin (seriously I'm not that much of a Grinch, I've just been there and I care).