Stress management

• Do you take yourself too seriously? Try this quiz.
• What specifically leads you to feel stressed?
• The overall feeling of stress is too nebulous to tackle easily. There are general tips for reducing stress levels, but addressing the root cause is better.
  • When do you feel most stressed?
  • When time pressure gets intense.
  • When colleagues give me a hard time.
  • When my team is underperforming.
  • When my results are below target.
  • When I have to influence a difficult person.
  • When I get negative feedback from customers.
• Looking at your main source of stress, what can you change?
• List factors in your environment that cause your stressful situation.
• Divide the list into things you can and cannot change.
• Make a plan to tackle external things you can change.
• Then, consider what aspects within yourself you can change.
• Can you improve your time management, assertiveness, influencing or conflict resolution skills, for example?
• What about how you respond emotionally to stress, given that no one can force you to feel anything if you make up your mind not to let it?
• We say: ''X makes me feel bad'', but nothing can make us feel anything unless we are willing to let it.

Ask yourself questions such as:

• ''Do I really need to let this bother me so much?''
• ''What is the worst thing that could happen to me?''
• ''How terrible is that, really?''
• ''How could I cope with that eventuality?''
• ''What is my fall back position in that case?''
• ''How can I use my emotional strengths (i.e. humour) to distance myself from this stressful situation?''
• ''Am I actually feeling any worse than anyone else?''
• ''Who else could I talk this through with?''

Adopt general stress reduction practices - exercise, proper diet, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and taking a timeout before reacting to provocations.