STEP-BY-STEP SOLUTION
5 Easy Steps Immediately Stop Stress in its Tracks! Without Stressing the ‘How’
Take your power back
Stress surrounds us and it’s apart of our day in and day out process. It can feel overwhelming. But in truth, we can stop it dead in it’s tracks. We have the power even at work or in our business where it feels like our job is to make others or keep others happy.
- Limit the Impact of who or what you are stressing about -If it’s a person ask yourself. Does the individual’s opinion of you, or the situation as a whole impact who you are? Will it impact your personal life? If not then don’t take them home with you. Leave them there at the office. Aside from empowering yourself outside of the office, leave the whole situation there. This important compartmentalization that we are good at can be applied here as well.
2. Change the channel… there is a famous pastor and motivational speaker who is a proponent of helping millions get out of their mental trash can. He has a simple solution that is very useful and practical when we want to improve our mental habits.
Change the channel of what’s ‘playing’ in your mind, if the picture in your mind is playing out what you see as your shortcomings, then change the channel, think about your favorite things.
Encourage Yourself for 30 seconds. What do you do well? What is your favorite thing about yourself? Think about your favorite happy memory. What is your favorite funny memory?
Think about these whenever the wrong thoughts come to mind. This pastor is a huge advocate that you have to encourage yourself. You cannot always count on others to encourage you. You must encourage yourself.
Then take the next step. Think of the things you do well, or you like about yourself, jot down 5 positive things about yourself, and put these as your screensaver for your computer, your phone or tablet. Or do it the old school way and put it on a post-it and stick it on your bathroom mirror or somewhere you’ll see it every day.
3. The Sound of Music. If you grew up with your mom, aunt, grandma, cousin or anyone who was a fan of the Sound of Music follow Maria’s example. Let the chorus play in your mind.
“When the dog bites, When the bee stings, When I’m feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things. And then I don’t feel so bad”
4. Day by Day. Make a promise to yourself. Commit to a day, then week, then month to not say anything negative to yourself. This is one is much harder, but when you do it in the moment these small increments make it much much easier to change the overall process and habit.
5. One Magic powerful word…Counter your stress thought with yet. Now some days will be harder than others to get out of this mental rut. That’s how life works some days will be a cinch and you’ll feel like you have kicked these terrible thoughts to the curb for good. Other days, not so much. It’s a process, more on that in just a moment.
On days where you find yourself negative thoughts about yourself more than others. Counter each statement with ‘yet’
“I’m not a good_____ “ fill in the blank with your struggle. AND follow it with Yet.
“I don’t like how I look” Becomes ‘I don’t like how I look yet’.
See the difference? Adding the word yet is, both very simple and powerful.
It’s so easy to do when these thoughts come, pause take a mental step back. Rephrase the thought with the word yet. You will feel better.
It’s a worthwhile Process — AND It works, being committed to redirecting your inner dialogue is a process. I’ll be the first to admit that I struggled with working through a process. I used to be really impatient with the process of transformation. That’s what happens when you work in a fast-paced workplace or often our life in general moving from one thing to the other. In truth when I was given the advice that something was ‘a process’ or even worse I was told to ‘enjoy the process’ was like a curse word to me. I really didn’t like it, but that’s because I didn’t value it.
Getting from A-Z. I had this notion that if there was a way to do something then if I applied the basic principles to make the change then the results should appear. Much like taking a class, if I followed the syllabus completed the course then I should get the grade. In life it’s true, you do gain the education, BUT until you apply the principles of the class on a regular basis over (the process) you won’t have the experience and become truly changed, which is just as important as finishing the course, some say more so. In school, the kids I thought were the smartest were the ones who didn’t study, flew through the tests and got a great grade. Not so for me. I had to study my butt off to get good grades.
You are worth it. You must be committed to getting out of the mental trash can. I cannot emphasize enough just how important this is to you and your success.
Results of our Immediate Action stick when we are committed to the process after we put the initial steps in place. Yes, we will get results right away. The principles work, so we cannot help but to get positive stress-relieving results. However, our ongoing daily commitment is the real way to develop better mental habits. When we do this the success will follow in many areas of our life, not just in sales.
