They say that success begins with the first step. When referring to stress management planning, whether you will be able to overcome and reduce your stressors starts with the acknowledgment and recognition of what these stressors are and then taking the resolve to do something about them.
Every one of us encounters some level of stress at some point in our lives, may it be as seemingly petty as a television show whose opening credits we missed because we were late by a minute, or as huge as a debt collector calling our houses nine times a day.
The fact that you are reading this article is already a feat in itself, because it means that you are planning to manage your stress – that you are decidedly doing something about the things that bother you. However, planning won’t amount to anything if you simply stay at this particular level. You have to think of ways and act on them for you to be able to succeed.
When stress management planning, it would help if you could first list down what your stressors are. These could come from the workplace, or occupational stress, from issues and concerns within your family and friends, from environmental factors, like heavy rains that ruin your precious rose bushes, or other things. Identifying what causes the troubles in your heart and head will help you better determine what strategies to employ.
Remember that what might have worked for other people during their stress management planning programs might not work for you. The process will be subjected to trial and error initially, but once you find that strategy that fits comfortably with your orientations and tolerance level, you will find that managing stress is not really as difficult as it seems.
Several stress management planning coaches suggest the following below to help you cope with your troubles and reduce (and eventually eliminate) stress.
- Develop long-range goals in life, with highly specific short-range sub-goals. Develop realistic means to achieve these sub-goals. Evaluate your progress regularly and be the first to pat yourself on the back or whisper a word of praise in your ear. You don’t have to worry about being unduly modest if no one else hears you boasting.
- During your stress management planning, never say bad things about yourself; especially, never attribute to yourself irreversible negative traits, such as ‘stupid’, ‘ugly’, ‘uncreative’, ‘incorrigible’, or ‘a failure’.
- Look for the causes of your behavior in physical, social, economic, and political aspects of your current situation and not in personality defects in you.
- Guild and shame have limited personal value in shaping your behavior toward positive goals. Don’t allow youself to indulge in them. Don’t allow others to criticize you as a person; it is your specific actions that are open for evaluation and available for improvement – accept such constructive feedback graciously if it will help you.
Success in stress management planning, as said earlier, starts with your admission that there are stressors in your life that need to be addressed and certain negative attitudes that need to be changed and improved. Once you’ve acknowledged that something is amiss, the better you will be able to cope with stress. If you keep pushing your ego at the forefront of every decision you make, it isn’t likely that you’ll accomplish anyting. Humble yourself and go make those changes. You owe it to yourself.