When I was dealing with one of the most stressful periods of my life I never thought about stress. In fact I didn’t even know I was even stressed. I thought that what I was dealing with and how I was managing my life was just a part of life and I might as well get use to it. In fact, if anyone looked at my life they would never know I was under any stress at all. It was a well hidden secret. So much so it was a hidden from me too.
I remember recently my son told me something I use to think myself “I work better under stress” in reality nothing could be further from the truth. We get things done because we have no choice but what we fail to recognize is the damage stress has on your body. The truth is no one is completely immune to stress and does affect you in profound ways.
Do you stay busy because you hate feeling bored? You consider yourself someone who loves life and lives it to its fullest, so you are always on the go, meeting new people doing new things.
Maybe others come to rely on you when they need help to get through a stressful situation in their life because of your positive optimistic attitude. To the outside world all seems well. But if you are paying no attention to the stress in your own life don’t be too surprised when you explode over some small thing that now seems like too much to handle.
Rather than waiting for stress to explode and totally disrupt your life and business, take time to observe the small disruptions and interruptions that cause stress for you on a regular basis. Dealing with problems as they come up will prevent a build-up of stress that can later cause an explosive reaction over something small.
When you hide or ignore the small stressor thinking that as long as I use affirmations and stay upbeat everything will be ok you are actually putting your head in the sand. You may notice this happening with your life partner. You ignore something that you find irritating, for instance, your partner leaves their dirty clothes on the floor. This may even go on for years. But one day they leave a dish in the sink and POW you explode in anger but was it really the dish in the sink or the years of being irritated by the clothes left on the floor.
Dealing with stressor as they come along is far more manageable then if you wait until you are in crisis mode. Commit to dealing with one problem a week. In one year you would have fixed 52 problems and resolving 52 problems will change your life.
What small problem are you committed to resolving this week? Keep a list in a journal and look back at it in one years time and see how your life has change.
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