Proper Management of Job Stress Helps Make Your Day More Productive and Enjoyable

Job Stress Management

The right amount of stress is optimal.  If we don’t have some stress then we get bored. The key is to be stimulated, but not overloaded. We want to consider things that affect our stress like factors outside our control, needing more training, setting realistic expectations, or not getting recognition.

Step 1:

Identify and list your work stressors, how you feel about them and how you respond to them

Example)
I never have enough time to get everything done my boss expects of me daily.
It makes me feel like I’m not as productive as everyone else.
I work through lunch and then I start eating junk food at 3:00pm

Step 2:

Go into Brainstorming mode of how you could use your time more efficiently, minimize your time and exposure to stressful people or situations. Speak to your boss or coworkers about the challenges you are facing if your plate is too full, how you can priorities what truly needs to get done first, and are there ways to get help. Let them know if they give you 12 hours of work in an 8 hour day, we are setting ourselves up for failure on a long term basis; this isn’t a realistic pace that we can maintain. So something has to change. Game plan to change expectations, reprioritize what gets worked on, and set windows aside to work on special projects.

Put down your game plan to reorganize each stressor into more manageable daily activities so you are setting yourself up with realistic expectations and meeting them. If you have unhealthy people in your environment, minimize your time and exposure to them. Find personal interest to focus in on when you take a break. Re-evaluate your game plan and where you are with reducing your stressors. Keep coming up and testing new ideas of how to handle challenges. Learn to praise yourself for your accomplishments, as opposed to looking for them from outside sources. “Great Job, I finished that project on time. “

Always know we have choices. If you don’t like what is going on around you, choose to look at the situation differently or change it. How else can you look at your situation? What are my options?

For Example) I had a client who was a stay at home mom, played tennis and golf during the day and loved and prioritized spending time with her kids. She hated her husband and resent being with him. She would binge from 6pm when he got home until 10pm when he would go to sleep. She didn’t want to leave him, because she was concerned about how it would affect her kids.

We brainstormed, and what she decided is that she looked at her job as starting at 6pm and ending at 10pm. She looked at those 4 hours as her work time, that she was paid well and had a good daytime quality of life. She realized if she left him, she would have to work 8 hours a day and not earn nearly what she would want to to live on. So when she saw her husband each night, she would tell herself, I’m getting paid to be here.  Just like any other job, you have to put up with situations or people you may prefer not to, but because I’m getting paid to do it. I can overcome it. I’m getting paid to do it, and tomorrow I’ll be golfing and spending time with my kids. This is well worth it! When she changed her attitude, guess how her husband’s behavior responded?

How can you look at your situation differently?

How can you share your concerns with others and work together to come up with win-win solutions to workplace challenges?

Utilizing these tools will help you to see your situation differently, mitigate the stress, and have a happier more productive day.

Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change and Self Sabotage

The only one stopping you…just might be…YOU!

Here are some ways to Overcome Resistance to Change & Self – Sabotage

Do you ever find yourself starting projects only to leave them unfinished?

Why is it that we have difficulty finishing things we start? Is it boredom? Maybe we feel stuck and choose to quit instead working through to a solution? When we are working on creating change in important parts of our lives, it is not surprising if we are dealing with some resistance to the changes. So, what exactly is resistance?

Resistance is a feeling we get when things are about to change. While you are going through this process, we want you to be aware of some of the different feelings and thoughts you may experience and how to work through them. Resistance to change comes in many forms.

The first few sessions, like anything new we are excited, and we do everything the way we are supposed to. Then something from life hits, it throws us off balance and we might find ourselves saying “Maybe this is not for me”, or “I can’t do this now, I can’t think.” Or we use other delaying tactics like “As soon as I get through with ____.” Some familiar forms of resistance “I’ll do it later.” Or “this is not the right time.” Whenever you find yourself using reasons not to move forward, it is because you are demonstrating some form of resistance to change.

We have to be open to change, or we will always be finding a reason not to do something that would benefit us. We would always prefer other people to change – not us. If we keep doing the same thing over and over, we will always get what we’ve always gotten. If we want to have different things show up in our lives, we first have to be open to and willing to change. Sometimes we demonstrate resistance because we don’t know “how” to change. We may become impatient because unless we can figure out exactly what kind of change is coming, and how we will feel about it, we simply opt for doing nothing because it seems safer. Impatience is another form of resistance. It is resistance to learning and to changing. When we demand that it be done now, completed at once, then we don’t give ourselves time to learn the lesson involved with the problem we have created. This is why diets can be effective initially – because they are able to demonstrate results quickly. That satisfies us and eliminates temporary resistance. However, since we didn’t take the time to learn about ourselves, and to deal with the reasons why we eat when we are not hungry, soon the weight comes back on.

Resistance to change can come in the form of Fear – “I’m not ready yet, I might fail,” Or in Denial – “I can’t do anything about this problem,” or Delaying tactics – “The time isn’t right. Or, “As soon as I get through with ____.” Some of us have a streak of stubbornness within us. If we decide to do something differently, the stubbornness can surface and our resistance to changing our thinking is strong. We may temporarily become self-righteous, angry and withdrawn.

So what can we do to move through the resistance?….

Stand in front of your mirror and look into your eyes as you say 3-4 times:

“I am open to change”

Did you feel any tightness in your throat? Was it difficult or easy to say? If you felt like it just didn’t feel right in your gut, than ask yourself what the resistance is about. Then say in the mirror 3 – 4 times:

“I am open to release the need for the resistance”

Whenever you find yourself questioning if you should continue, or if this is right for you, just allow yourself to see it for what it really is, and simply tell yourself that you are willing to change, and willing to release all resistance. The Universe supports us in every thought we choose to think. If we think we can’t – we can’t. Act as if you believe this is the best thing for you at this time and your life. Give yourself the gift of patience and love – you will get positive results!

Do You Have a Healthy Body Image?

Supermodels reinacting Da Vinci's Last Supper...without food.

When we were young, we were taught that our bodies are perfect just the way they are. Somewhere along the way, that ideal became skewed—skewed by stick-thin runway models, too-toned-for-their-own-good celebrities and an unhealthy standard of what’s beautiful. So where does that leave us today when it comes to how we feel about our bodies?

Many women and men don’t know how to deal with this sort of pressure, especially in a culture where our worth is defined by the way we look.  With that pressure, a lot of times comes emotional overeating.  Do you find yourself eating when not hungry?  Grazing all day long, returning to food to pick at all day?  Working in an office environment, food is constantly delivered and there is usually a candy drawer/bowl within an arm’s reach.  This results in a large overall number of calories consumed even if the quantities eaten at any one time are small.  At the end of the day, there is guilt and shame brought on by this behaviour and can lead to additional overeating at home…which is usually worse because it can be done in secret.

Does this sound like you?  Do you have a story?  Do you suffer from emotional overeating and as a result have an unhealthy body image?

Post your story here…