In Times of Great Tension, Protect Yourself

Based on a random sampling of clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, family members and community members, I believe that stress is increasing across the board. If that's true, perhaps it's due to the on-going bad economic news, the number of layoffs, the corruption in Corporate America and the constant underlying worry about terrorism. In any case, stress can get in the way of accelerating results. When an entertainer or an athlete becomes overly stressed, their performance becomes erratic and falls below par. You need to reduce stress in order to optimize your performance.

First, identify things that increase stress:

OVEREATING, OVERDRINKING & OVERWORKING
Some people overeat, overdrink and overwork in an attempt to fight their way through the things that are creating the stress. Unfortunately, this increases the stress level even more. Even without becoming an alcoholic or workaholic, this cycle can slow you down dramatically and rob you of the opportunity to flourish in your career and accelerate your organization's results.

DUMPING YOUR STRESS ON TO ANOTHER PERSON
This is the dangerous cycle of seeking out some poor victim and unleashing your stress on them. You commit a virtual drive-by shooting by pouring all of the things that are stressing you out on to some one else. The ironic and sad thing is that many times people dump their stress on the people they love the most. (I know I'm certainly guilty of that trait.) Unfortunately, rather than releasing your stress in this manner, you multiply the stress in your life. Suddenly you find yourself going back and forth with the other person sharing stressful events until you both are worse off than you started. Scott Peck once wrote, "The best thing you can do for a poor person is not to become one yourself." At first I thought I read it wrong. Then I disagreed with him for a long time. Finally, I understood his point. If you become poor, you can't be of assistance to another person. If you become stressed out, you cannot help another person reduce their stress.

Second, identify ways to reduce stress in your life:

EXERCISE, EAT HEALTHY AND TAKE A NAP
Take a break and go for a walk, or do some situps and pushups, or get into a volleyball or basketball game. Let your body get away from the mental work and just relax. If you pour twenty minutes a day into exercise, the rest of your day will be more productive as the stress in your body is reduced. Stay away from fried food and extra rich desserts and huge amounts of bread. Take a thirty minute nap in the afternoon. (That's right. Go out in your car and put the seat back for half an hour. Trust me, it works wonders.) Give your body some rest and some nutrition and start to feel the stress fall to the wayside. Reducing stress accelerates business results. When a person becomes overly stressed, their judgment weakens and they do crazy things.

READ SOMETHING INSPIRING
Last week I went on a doozy of a seven-day tour that went from Fenton to Chicago to Fenton to Tulsa to Fenton to Boston to Fenton. While in Boston my body and brain were fried, and I was stressed. As I walked through the airport, I stopped by the bookstore and found a book called, "Living A Life That Matters" by Harold Kushner (Anchor Books, 2001). Its main point is that a successful person is a good person who makes a difference in the lives of other people. What a stress reducer! You and I don't need to be perfect or world-famous or make millions of dollars to be a success. We simply need to be a good person and make a difference in the lives of other people. The week before I read a great interview between Oprah Winfrey and Ralph Lauren in the Oprah magazine. What a breath of fresh air from the constant negative hammering in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fortune magazine.

BE A KID AGAIN
My three-year-old daughter, Sarah, does not have stress in her life. She laughs, cries, naps, runs and tells stories. She's a kid. That's what you need to act like to reduce the stress in your life. Stress is manufactured within us. No one can insert stress into our lives. Some people in the most horrific of situations have managed to remain free of stress. How do they do it? They focus on the outcome, they concentrate on doing what needs to be done and they attach no extra pressure to the activity. Some people call it being in the "zone" or "in flow." Call it what you want, but the idea is to focus on the activity and the outcome and not on all of the bad things that could happen if something goes wrong. I've found that when I laugh, my one-year-old son, Ben, stops crying and starts laughing. Maybe we should all pause and laugh more.

DO WHAT YOU LOVE
When I was a high school teacher, I invariably called in sick two to three times a year. For some reason, I just didn't feel well. Five years ago I started my own consulting firm. Now I enjoyed being a teacher, but I love being a consultant! I haven't had a sick day in five years. Coincidence? I don't think so. I think when you do what you love to do you get reenergized quicker. Do something today that you love: read a book, fly a kite, volunteer to work with children, build a house with Habitat For Humanity, train for a marathon, do whatever you personally love to do. Even one day immersed in your favorite activity can make all the difference.

In times of great tension, you need to protect yourself so that you do not become stressed out. By protecting yourself from excessive stress, you do a great deal to help other people become more successful.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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