Entry #1

My name is Morgan Anderson. I am currently a School of Management student at the University at Buffalo and I am taking the class “Communication Literacy for Business”. We are making blogs to research a specific soft skill that we find critical to have in the business world. I picked Stress Management as the skill I want to research, because I believe this is a skill that everyone can continue to improve throughout their lives. Stress is defined as “ a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Since moving to Buffalo, I have been put through a lot of stress. I have a serious back injury which causes me a lot of pain and problems, I recently found out that I have a heart condition, and my father has been in and out of hospitals for months due to medical issues that no doctor can figure out the source of. All of these issues combined with a boyfriend who lives 2 hours away, living in a new unfamiliar city, attending undergraduate school, and trying to make brand new friends… I could really benefit from learning more about stress management.

My philosophy of work statement explained that I believe work is important to everyone, and I believe stress management is as well. Everyone has stress in their lives, and without knowing how to manage it, you can become consumed by it. I plan to use “trying new things”, “being flexible”, “drawing on past experiences”, and “reflection” as my aspects to learning new skills that we discussed in class. I picked these to assist me in learning this skill because I believe they will all assist in learning about stress management. Trying new things and being flexible will allow me to get out of my comfort zone and maybe try something new that I wouldn’t have before. Drawing from past experiences and reflection will allow me to look back at how I handled my stress in the past, and learn to strengthen my skills with managing stress.