How do you handle stress, fatigue, and anxiety? We all have stress, but very few of us have developed a personal system of how to handle it. So often we get so stressed out that the only thing we can focus on is the stress, and like I have said before whatever you focus on expands. I know that in the past the things that stressed me out or caused me to worry seemed so large and after all was said and done they really weren't cause for all that worry and stress.
You need to come up with a series of questions that you ask yourself to analyze how important something is or isn't. This reminds me of a time that my wife and I wanted to take a vacation. We own our own business and vacationing was not always possible. Plus with three children it definitely was a challenge to say the least. Finding someone to keep the kids a major mission. So, Our oldest two children stayed with family. Close friends of ours offered to keep our youngest son who was six at the time.
This worked out great because their son Jimmy was good friends with our son, so we felt confident about the arrangement. We left and had a wonderful time in Jamaica for a week. When returning I remember walking into our friends front door only to be greeted by an excited and energetic Jimmy. Mind you, Jimmy was one of those six year olds that had a vocabulary as if he were an adult that shrunk. He came running up to me and said " MMMMr. Elkins you wwwwon't believe what we did". I quickly laughed at his excitement and at the fact that he was so excited he was stuttering. I responded and said "What did you do?. He said "WWWWe went to the Circus". I then said" That's awesome". Jimmy said"NNN0! That's not the best part". I then said "What's the best part?" He then said "We saw an elephant!" I said "That's really cool." Jimmy again followed with "TTThat's not the best part." Finally I said to Jimmy "Tell me the best part". Jimmy then said" We were standing behind the elephant and we moved out of the way just in time, because the elephant lifted his tail up and plopped on the ground."
At this point I said to Jimmy " It's a good thing you stepped out of the way or you would have gotten stuck in the plop." After that I looked at my wife and said I can use this. She looked at me and just shook her head. Do you allow yourself to get stuck in the plop when most of the time you can step out of the way. It's important for us to remind ourselves that we have the power to put things in perspective in such a way that things just aren't as stressful as we make them out to be. One more thing. Learn how to say NO. That has been a constant challenge for me. Taking on so much wanting help others and make a contribution that the only thing that happens is STRESS. So, step out of the way and don't get plopped on.
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