Stress: Life's Constant Game of Chess - [website] Published: 21st of Feb 2011 by: (c) Staff Training Reporter
Why is stress such a big deal? How can we learn to cope?
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I’ll bet I’m not the only one who, on Mondays occasion, wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and is then unable to do anything but watch as the day gets progressively worse.
In fact I know I’m not. But that doesn’t help the situation when faced with someone quite obviously dealing with a day like this, and sometimes trying to not let their bad mood rub off on you can prove a real challenge.
What does help the situation, however, is understanding WHY it all seems to go all downhill from the moment you set foot out of bed on these unholy days.
Think of it like this: You get up ten minutes late because you’re alarm didn’t go off; rush to the shower, slip and hurt your arm; decide it’s all too much hassle and that you’ll just brush your teeth before rushing off, only to find the kids have eaten all the toothpaste and you’re squeezing heck out of the tube in vain.
Now, that’s enough to put anyone in a bad mood first thing in the morning, but the point is that that’s the frame of mind you’ve put yourself in for the day. You’re expecting bad things to keep on happening, and so of course they do.
Instead of realising that being ten minutes late is better than rushing and hurting someone (be it someone on the roads or yourself on the way to the shower), and that simply collecting your thoughts and getting things done would be the smarter move, we tend to let the first signs of failure set the tone and all day long we’re trying to play catch-up.
We say things like “this day could not get any worse!” and “I must be the unluckiest person alive,” and thus both of these very negative statements become sort of self-fulfilling prophecies.
To put it into perspective, look at it this way: Your constant negative thoughts on these days, from the very first groan as you get out of bed to the moment you stub your toe on it before climbing back in that night, become your mantra, and every time you repeat these words to yourself you get another step closing to making them a reality.
The way you handle stressful situations in the workplace is one of the determining factors of how high your stress levels will be in actuality (for stress itself is a stressor), so if you know how to deal with stress in a constructive manner from the start you can actively keep it to a minimum, and thus keep your productivity levels at their maximum.
And we all know what higher productivity levels translate to – recognition, promotions and increases, which mean better shoes, phones and gadgets, which lead to a more contented you at the end of the day.
(c)Matt Wood
Staff Training
Real Solutions for Real People
Matt is employed by Staff Training, a soft skills training company dealing with these topics and issues on a daily basis. You are welcome to re-use and/or re-publish this article, but please ensure that this final acknowledgment paragraph and link accompanies it. Thank you! The Staff Training team.
http://www.stafftraining.co.za
