Most of us always have stress in our lives, but a market crisis like we are experiencing, just seems to escalate it a bit.  Will we lose our job, will we not find a job, will our future plans now be unattainable, will we now not reach our early retirement goal; will we lose it all?  It’s thinking about these things that cause us stress.  They are depressing thoughts that are destructive to our productivity, health and well being.  Finding ways to handle our stress is key to staying positive and moving forward.

In 1944, Dale Carnegie, a well-known inspirational teacher and writer, wrote a book titled; How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which compiles time tested wisdom on how to avoid worrying about problems you can’t affect.  Although the examples in the book are dated, the basic principles outlined here are timeless:

Stop Worrying About the Past or the Future
The key points here are:  Put the past in the past and focus on the present, do not become anxious about the future, focus on the present and what you can do today, and consider the worst thing that could happen, and prepare for it.

What Worry Can Do To You
An underlying reason for worry is fear, which causes tension and nervousness, which can affect your bodily chemistry by producing illness (heart disease, high blood pressure, other) and ulcers.
Learning to worry less will help you to feel better and live longer.

Get the Facts and Decide What to Do
Analyze your problems effectively by collecting all the facts associated with them, from as many angles as possible, so that you can make decisions and act on them.  Analyze problems by asking:  1) What is the problem?  2) What causes it?  3) What are all the possible solutions?  4) What solution do I suggest?  This is also effective as a team approach, as the more points of view that are uncovered; the more likely you are to make the best decisions.

Techniques to Break the Worry Habit
The key points here are:

1) Think about something else, stay busy, and/or become active with something else that does not cause worry (new work projects, exercise, hobbies),

2) focus only on really important matters (life is too short to worry about little things),

3) understand that according to the law of averages the vast majority of the things you worry about never happen –they are only from our imagination, not reality,

4) learn to accept the inevitable and work with it, 5) Learn from past mistakes, but don’t dwell on them or regret what cannot be or what is not now (move on).

Ways to Change Your Attitude
As ‘our thoughts make us what we are’ it is important to stay positive.  Try to always have a positive attitude and outlook, over a negative one.  Unhappy, negative people usually drive others away from them, while people are attracted to positive, happy people.  Let your positive attitude guide you into taking productive, useful actions to resolve problems.  Being positive can have dramatic effects such as banishing worry, fear and various kinds of illnesses.

Other key points to having a positive attitude include:

1) Don’t try to get even or get revenge (focus on more productive things),

2) Don’t expect people to be grateful (just give for the joy of giving),

3)  Count your blessings –not your troubles (focus on the positive in your life)

4) Concentrate on being who you are, rather than trying to be like someone else,

5)  Use prayer, regardless of your religious background,  to help inspire you.  Prayer will help you put in words exactly what is bothering you and will give you a sense of sharing your burdens and not being alone.  It will also help energize you into taking actions to resolve your problems,

6) Make lemonade from lemons –find ways to turn your problems into opportunities, turn losses into profits.

The human mind cannot think of more than one thing at a time.  Instead of dwelling on the negative in your life which causes you stress, choose to think of positive and productive thoughts.  Then put these thoughts into action.  More sales come from making more calls and getting more appointments.  More job offers come from perfecting your resume and interview skills, and targeting the right people in the right companies.

Life is not a dress rehearsal –choose to make every minute of it count.

Tags : Dale Carnegie, life, stress, worrying about problems, Дейл Карнеги, жизнь, стресс, чувство тревоги

Filed under Stress Advice, Career Advice