Is life, your job, or your career stressing you out? If you’re trying to accomplish anything with your life, and you were honest, I’ll bet you’d admit to being stressed out at least some of the time. In fact, you may be stressed out pretty much ALL the time. So if stress is a bigger and bigger part of your life, then here’s one important thing you need to learn:
The greatest key to beating stress is to control the things you can. The truth is, we often allow simple things that we can control to get away from us. And when we start harnessing those things once again, the stress equation dramatically changes.
Certainly we can’t control airline schedules, client behavior, the weather, unexpected events, difficult co-workers, or other things out of our influence. But there are plenty of things we can control, and when we do, those issues start making a much smaller impact. For instance, we can control our sleep schedule, and science has proven that simply getting enough sleep will dramatically change our attitude and productivity. We can control showing up late, and that issue alone will reduce enormous stress. We can control how we respond to a crisis, how often we exercise, quiet times, our spiritual life, and our attitude about work. When you stop and think about it, you have far more control over life than you think.
The bottom line is that far too often, we give up controlling things we have power over, and when that happens, our personal stress levels escalate.
If you take this advice seriously, and do it on a daily basis, you’ll be amazed and just how quickly you’ll start relaxing and getting your life back in control.
Phil Cooke is a producer and media consultant to churches and ministries across the country. His latest book is “Unique: Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media.” Find out more at www.philcooke.com.
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