Summary
Sooner or later, we all face nasty traffic or annoyances. However, we cannot allow our emotions to run wild based on minor inconveniences. You no doubt have encountered drivers consumed with road rage or internet trolls spewing in anger over an article they dislike. How does this anger help anyone to achieve their goals and live a better life?
The key to a productive and happy day is to maintain calm, even when things are annoying or high-pressure. Maintaining calm will help you to keep your stress levels in check and your focus on your priorities.
Read on to learn more on how you can cultivate a greater spirit of calm no matter what is happening around you.
Transcript
Succeeding in business requires that you have a first-rate temperament.
We all have moments of passion and emotion, but it is critical to not let ourselves run away with such feelings.
You may have seen on television, or increasingly in real life, some of the crazy and outright tragic reactions that some people have when driving. It’s called road-rage and it’s a common experience that many of us have witnessed in traffic.
It’s almost never a productive use of energy. Someone cuts you off, takes your parking spot, sends an obscene gesture your way. Well, so what? Do you really need to lash out and react? Do you really have to give that person the satisfaction of provoking a reaction out of you?
Road-rage is just one symptom of the overreactions that are prevalent in our society today. I thought of this recently when a friend of mine paid me a very nice compliment. He was going through an extreme amount of stress in his personal and professional life. Had he faced this type of situation just a few years prior, he would have very likely reacted very negatively. The consequences personally and professionally could have make his life difficult for some time to come in future.
And yet that was the man he had become. He turned and calmly walked away. How had he accomplished this transition?
I was very humbled when he attributed it to me. He told me that watching me handle stressful business and personal situations over last twenty years had helped him. I truly could not imagine a higher compliment. I am pointing this out because almost daily or certainly weekly, many of us come across situations we need to “handle”. And usually in almost every given situation, the best way to handle it is to remain calm, get through it and then move on.
Studies have shown that top performers are consistently more skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress. I know that it can be easier said than done to remain calm under intense pressure. But there are techniques for doing so that all of us can harness and benefit from.
Stress is a normal emotion. It’s part of how our brains are wired. But it is not healthy or productive to function under prolonged periods of it.
In order to better harness your emotions, try to practice regular gratitude and appreciation for the things you have in your life. It will help reduce your stress hormones and help cultivate an attitude of improved mood and energy.
Avoid dwelling on fantasy, whether rooted in the past or in the future. By continually brooding on “what might have been”, you only create added stress for yourself that has no means of being relieved through actions that you can control. These feelings have no productive outlet, so they only send your mind spinning down dark avenues. The time that you spend dwelling on these possibilities just keeps you from taking action that will calm you down and help you to advance toward your goals.
Along with the goal of mental resilience, you should stay positive. It doesn’t mean that you indulge in unrealistic thinking, but adopting an optimistic bent will help your brain to self-select constructive thinking. This is obviously much easier to achieve when things are going well, but you can likely also hone in on something that is going well, even a small blessing, that will help keep you focused and energized for the longer journey toward accomplishing your goals.
You will also help keep your stress levels in check by taking time to disconnect. Everyone needs a break and working yourself to death is just a recipe for surefire burnout. Taking time to step away from work and even unplugging from your devices will help to keep you calm. The ubiquity of today’s technology and connections sustains the expectation that we should all be easily contactable, ready for work at any moment. You need to learn to push back against this cultural expectation and carve out time for yourself if you want to truly be delivering your best work over a sustained period of time.
Mind Body Matters
This one may be controversial, but you should also encourage taking breaks from the coffee breaks. Caffeine may feel like our savior when we are feeling sloggy, but it can also give you surges of adrenaline that will throw off your natural body rhythms. If you are tired or feeling drowsy, you may want to consider perking up by taking a walk or drinking some water instead.
Along with proper habits with caffeine, it is essential to get enough sleep in order to manage your stress. Almost any problem or challenge will seem far more doable in the morning after a proper night’s rest. Sleep is a magical thing! It helps you recharge your batteries and subconsciously focus back in on what is most important to you. Resist the temptation to pull heroic all-nighters. You should view sleep as not something that takes you away from accomplishing tasks, but an essential building block to a well-balanced life.
You may or may not be entirely comfortable with the practice of meditating, but you surely can benefit from deep breathing exercises and taking time to feel your breathe come in and out. It is a great habit to adopt for when you start to feel overwhelmed. Just shut your door and cast aside all of the distractions to focus in on how your body feels. Try counting until 20 and just focusing on your breathing during that interval. You will feel like a new person afterward, a calmer person.
Also reach out to your support network and your friends. Part of stress stems from feeling like you are all alone. The truth is that we all face such challenging moments, so don’t be afraid to reach out to others. Spend time with those in your life who help you feel calm and centered, moving away from those who only add anxiety and negativity to your daily experience.
Also pay attention to how your surroundings affect your mood. Rooms with warm lighting and a lack of electronics will help you feel grounded and centered. Strive to be sure that your surroundings are conducive to calmness. The small things really add up in creating an environment that supports you.
All of these steps will help you to manage your stress levels and react rationally to minor setbacks that you encounter. It is inevitable that all of us will suffer from traffic jams, excessive paperwork or hassles at one point or another. But what determines the quality of your life is not the absence of inconvenience, but how you respond to setbacks and challenges. By making a deliberate decision to remain calm and focused on the big picture, you can navigate life with more energy and less stress.
You can also learn more by visiting my website: tonyneumeyer.com and registering to receive free trainings articles and more. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Facebook. You can get your copy of The 7 Minute Millionaire and check out my other books at https://tonyneumeyer.com/books/.
