Many of us fool ourselves into believing that we are coping with stress when we are not. An effective stress management programme doesn’t just deal with stress when it crops up. It is an integral part of how we work and live.
1. Be Sure You Really Want To Manage Your Stress. There are some people in high-pressure jobs who thrive on stress. They love the excitement and unpredictability of it. They even become addicted to the adrenalin it creates. For such people work is like a roller-coaster ride and their chief problem is not how to cope with the pressure but how to manage when the ride stops.
2. Analyse Your Normal Stress Response. Understanding your normal way of handling stress can provide insight into whether you are prepared to face up to it or not. Temporary adaptive behaviour is a way of dealing with stress which avoids facing up to issues by reacting aggressively or evasively. Examples include throwing yourself into work and taking it out on others. Maladaptive behaviour is a way of dealing with stress that is entirely inappropriate because it does not recognize the stress or its causes. Examples include pretending it hasn’t happened and blotting it out through drink or drugs. Adaptive behaviour is the healthy response to stress. It is a recognition not just that stress exists but that you have to change in order to deal with it. Examples of adaptive behaviour are admitting it and undertaking a coping strategy.
3. Wean Yourself Off Unhelpful Crutches. If you are hooked on adrenaline, there’s a good chance you use crutches to get you through. These crutches include artificial stimulants, such as drink, drugs and cigarettes and mixing with others who are as hooked as you are. Before beginning your personal stress management programme, you need to lessen your reliance on these unhelpful supports.
4. Find Your Own Level Of Pressure. Stress management programmes are not about the complete elimination of stress. That is neither possible nor desirable. They are about finding the right level of pressure in your life at work and home: enough to motivate you into doing work from which you can derive personal satisfaction; not too much that you feel swamped.
5. Develop The Stress-Hardy Personality. Suzanne Kobasa, a researcher at the City University of New York, carried out a retrospective study of middle and upper-level managers. These were prime candidates for high stress levels but they demonstrated very little stress. Kobasa found three common characteristics amongst these managers: they felt they controlled their lives and were not controlled by external events or people they were committed to the idea of who they were and what they were doing they believed in change as the normal mode of life.
6. Work On All Areas Of Your Life. A holistic stress management plan is one that deals with all parts of our lives: it deals with both short-term and long-term stress; it encompasses all states of the body, mind, heart and spirit; and each part works with each other part. When you create such a way of living, you don’t just manage your stress; you create super-health.
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