Two Ways To Manage Stress

I sometimes get overwhelmed.

No, actually, I often get overwhelmed. This happens when my view of my long-term vision, which involves the 3 areas of my life I want to improve (Health, Relationships, Accomplishments), give way to the overwhelming number of things I have to do right now.

When I start worrying about the sheer number of things I have to do, my mission becomes a little distant; a little opaque. It then brings a flood of emotions, limitations, fears – giving me a sense of being overwhelmed with “things to do”.

Fortunately, I’m now working through a strategy that’s starting to work for me. 

90 seconds rule

The moment I recognise an unwanted behaviour – anger, hatred, sulking, being overwhelmed by introspection or the number of sticky notes on my mirror – I do whatever it takes to get out of it in 90 seconds. 

I started this process about 5 months back and more often than not, I would fail to get rid of the unwanted emotion/behavior in 90 seconds. But over time, by building my mental muscles, I seem to have reached a new height: one where it isn’t so hard to switch out of [states of being stupid] in 90 seconds. I am becoming more successful and growing!

The Morning Routine 

Getting up in the morning and feeling like there is so much to do can be fought off by developing a morning routine.  

Currently, I am fighting hardto get entry into the “5am Club” (Thanks Robin Sharma!) and the morning routine of things I MUST do, just come so handy!  

With a commitment to knowing about one new thing within 1 hour of waking up, I am exposing myself to a new thought every morning and it creates an awe and that just kicks off my day well. It converts mornings to more productive than I have ever considered possible!

A great start of the day oftenmeans a great finish – it prepares you for the eventual crap you will have to deal with (mostly due to factors outside your control). A great start means you will have something to look back at and feel the gratitude for having been enlightened in whatever way that event touched your heart. 

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The stress that you feel isn't going to be resolved by itself and definitely not by taking care of the specific thing that is stressing you out.

Why let an external factor such as email or social media control how your morning goes, when you have an option of taking complete control of it in your hands?

These are devilishly difficult thoughts to fight. Intellectually I know the solution in my mind but emotionally and physically, fighting these is a bigger challenge.  Fortunately, I now notice that focusing on gratitude for what I have and small wins during the morning mostly helps dissipate these thoughts. To top it off, being able to talk to my partner about it just creates a fantastic balance.

If you have read so far, you probably struggle with it too. The core of this is about you finding that small thing that works for you to get off your butt and DO something. It would be different depending on type of work, time of day, place you are at. 

The key is “changing” your stateby doing SOMETHING rather than nothing and just continue to think!

Positive Talk is utterly useless without positive ACTIONS.

If you can relate to above, PM me to see how you can start building a great career, where you can set yourself up to grow substantially.