Tag Archive for: stress

You are here: / / stress

Posts

#Leadership : How To Keep Working Productively When You’re Under Extreme Stress…You’ve got a Big Job with Bigger Responsibilities. Then Disaster Strikes. Here’s How to Keep it Together.

/in /by
Say you’re a high performer who’s risen through the ranks. Now you have even bigger responsibilities. Or you’re working your way toward a promotion and need to show your skills and professionalism in the best light. Then the phone call comes. The results of your medical tests weren’t good. Or you suddenly have to take care of a loved one in an emergency. Or there’s an unexpected financial hit that could spell catastrophe.
Free- Locks

Whatever the situation, your life just got much more complicated. While intuitively you know that these things can happen to anyone, the anxiety of dealing with such troubling events, coupled with the pressure to continue to perform in your job, amps up the stress to DEFCON 1.

“A curveball like that requires sharpening your coping skills and expanding them so that you can deal with what’s being demanded of you,” says clinical psychologist Alicia H. Clark, adjunct professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. And there is a strategic approach you can take to help you cope and perform better, even when you’re operating under extreme stress.

IDENTIFY WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

Part of the anxiety that occurs during such urgent situations comes from feeling a loss of control, says Matthew Digeronimo, a retired nuclear submarine lieutenant commander and coauthor of Extreme Operational Excellence: Applying the U.S. Submarine Culture to Your Organization. He recommends identifying the things you can adapt or adjust to regain some of that feeling of order. “If a family member is ill, you might not be able to control the illness. But you can control the manner in which you rally around that person. You can control your working hours, or the way you react to it,” he says.

If you can schedule meetings or calls during your high-energy times, or work from home one day a week, take advantage of those options. Use the power you do have to adapt your life to deal with your new situation for the time being, he says.

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

IDENTIFY THE “MUST-DOS”

We all have tasks that need to get done to fulfill our responsibilities. However, high-performing individuals often go beyond the basics and take on other to-dos—that’s often what makes them high performers, Clark says. Now is the time to scale back to the most necessary and immediate task. Ask yourself these key questions:

  • Where can I cut back?
  • Where can I save time?
  • What can I put off without much consequence?

For example, do you need to take that trip to China now? Or can you cut back to visiting two states instead of three on your next trip? Can support staff handle some of the legwork on that upcoming report? Once you have a sense of where your time needs to be spent, you can create a list of priorities to ensure you’re getting the essentials done. Then you can decide whether you have time or energy to take on more.

ACCEPT “GOOD ENOUGH”—FOR NOW

This is also a good time to let go of perfectionism and accept “good enough,” Clark says. When you’re good at and take pride in what you do, it can be tough to do the minimum acceptable job. Sometimes, that’s what’s necessary to free up time and energy you need for other things to prevent burnout, she says.

SLOW DOWN

Extreme stress can affect decision making as well. Recent research from the University of Pittsburgh found that anxiety affects the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which regulates problem solving, impulse control, and emotion regulation.

Unlike typical periodic stress, where you may feel the pressure of events that happen from time to time, unrelenting stress doesn’t give you time for recovery, says Richard Citrin, PhD, founder of Citrin Consulting, a talent and leadership development consultancy, and author of The Resilience Advantage: Stop Managing Stress and Find Your Resilience. So your decision-making abilitymay be taking a beating.

As a result, you need to be more intentional about what you’re doing. Gather your facts methodically, and if necessary, take more time to make decisions or take action to be sure you get it right, he says.

SHARE SELECTIVELY

Another decision you’ll need to make is what—and how much—to tell those around you. Should you tell your boss that your parent is ill? Should you tell your boss or coworkers that you’re going through a divorce? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, Digeronimo says.

If the situation will require you to change some of your work habits or be out of the office, then it’s probably a good idea to tell your boss the basics and share your plan for managing the situation. He thinks it’s not a good idea to share too much with coworkers, as it can breed gossip and office politics. “For most of us, our coworkers are not our source of support,” he says. “I think it can only add to your stress level if you share these types of details with them.”

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK

When Citrin’s daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, he and his wife both had full-time careers. He says that one of the most important lessons he learned throughout the experience was to accept help from other people so that he could free up time to help his daughter. He says it can be hard for people who are used to handling everything themselves to ask for or accept help from others, but even allowing a neighbor to bring over a meal can relieve one of your many demands. Clark adds that it’s important to practice good self-care, including getting enough sleep, exercising, and trying to manage your stress.

Chances are that you’re going to have to juggle a personal emergency with your work at some point. Understanding how to keep your work life intact while managing extreme stress requires a combination of cutting back, being mindful, and taking care of your own needs, so you can address both work and personal demands.

 

FastCompany.com | GWEN MORAN  | 11.07.16 5:43 AM

 

#Leadership : From Landing A Promotion To Harnessing Stress: October’s Top Leadership Stories…This Month’s Top Stories may Help you Put your Stress to Good Use, Write Better Cover Letters, or Even End the Year with a Promotion.

/in /by

This month, we learned which cover letter gaffes turn hiring managers away, what kinds of work-related stress may actually be useful, and why the cybersecurity sector may want to consider recruiting musicians.

These are the stories you loved in Leadership in October 2016:

1. I REVIEW HUNDREDS OF COVER LETTERS—HERE’S WHAT I INSTANTLY REJECT

The days of the cover letter may ultimately be numbered, but they’re still widely used to screen candidates. These are some of the most common immediate disqualifiers, according to one experienced hiring manager.

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

2. I’M A CEO—HERE’S HOW I DECIDE WHETHER TO GIVE YOU A RAISE OR LAY YOU OFF

Got your eye on a raise or promotion by the end of the year? To get it, you’ll need to make a case for what you’re worth to your company. This month, one CEO shared the basic math he uses to make decisions like these, saying, “For every dollar that you hope to get in increased pay, you need to bring in three to five dollars to the business for your raise to make sense.”

3. USE THIS FORMULA TO TAME YOUR HOPELESS TO-DO LIST

Chances are your to-do list is a bit of a jumble, right? You’re not alone—the very act of prioritizing your daily action items sometimes doesn’t feel like a top priority. But with this straightforward method, you can give your work tasks some much-needed structure, and all you need to know are your ABCs.

4. SORRY, BUT SOME WORK-RELATED STRESS IS GOOD FOR YOU

Chronic stress can be a workplace killer, but researchers believe that smaller doses of “acute” stress may actually help us develop our skills and boost productivity. Here’s a look at a few ways to make limited amounts of job-related stress work in your favor.

5. GM TO TOP TECH TALENT: DITCH SILICON VALLEY FOR DETROIT

The legacy carmaker isn’t exactly known for its fast-paced, innovative culture, but CEO Mary Barra is trying to change that. With several key acquisitions under its belt, GM is picking up a few things from the tech world, hoping the best and brightest will take note.

6. 3 CRUCIAL THINGS I’VE LEARNED IN MY FIRST 30 DAYS AS A MANAGER

Becoming a new manager isn’t easy. For Buffer’s Katie Womersley, it didn’t help that she felt the people she was tasked with managing were better developers than she was. Here’s what she says it took to shake that self-doubt and settle into her new role.

7. GWYNETH PALTROW ON WHY HER MONTHLY CAPSULE COLLECTIONS SELL OUT IN HOURS

Paltrow told Fast Company this month that recent rumors she’d be leaving Goop, her lifestyle brand, are dead wrong. The company is growing fast, thanks in no small part to the “lean” startup methods that inform its new, curated product lines featuring just a handful of items at a time.

8. THREE WAYS TO WRITE SHORTER, MORE EFFECTIVE EMAILS

Email is only as effective as what it gets done, so this week we learned how to trim the inefficiencies out of our messages to make sure they accomplish more in fewer words.

9. MUSICIANS MAY BE THE KEY TO THE CYBERSECURITY TALENT SHORTAGE

Data breaches are becoming so commonplace that the cybersecurity sector can’t seem to grow fast enough to help organizations defend themselves. In fact, the sector is at 0% unemployment, and the race to find qualified talent is driving up wages. That means looking for crossover skills in unlikely places, and some believe that musical training may be one of them.

10. SCIENCE-BACKED WAYS TO BUILD CONFIDENCE WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE

There’s plenty of advice out there for faking confidence, but the better approach may actually be to persuade yourself to actually feel the vibe you’re trying to project. Here’s a look at the latest psychological research on how to trick your brain into greater self-assurance.

FAST COMPANY STAFF 10.28.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 8 Powerful Ways To Conquer Stress… As Simple as These Strategies May Seem, They are Difficult to Implement When your Mind is Clouded with Stress. Force Yourself to Attempt Them the Next Time your Head is Spinning, and You’ll Reap the Benefits that Come with Disciplined Stress Management.

/in /by

The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

happy young business man portrait in bright modern office indoor

Stress has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it, but how you respond is only half the battle. The secret to winning the war against stress lies in what you do when you aren’t working (and presumably aren’t as stressed). Otherwise, you fall into bad habits that can magnify your stress, rather than alleviate it.

You need to shift gears to these relaxing and rejuvenating activities during your time off:

#1: Exercise

No time to exercise during the week? You have 48 hours every weekend to make it happen. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a soothing neurotransmitter that reduces stress. Exercise is also a great way to come up with new ideas. Innovators and other successful people know that being outdoors often sparks creativity.

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

#2: Minimize Chores

Chores have the tendency to monopolize your free time. When this happens, you lose the opportunity to relax and reflect. What’s worse is that a lot of chores feel like work, and if you spend all weekend doing them, you just put in a seven-day workweek. To keep this from happening, you need to schedule your chores like you would anything else during the week, and if you don’t complete them during the allotted time, you move on and finish them the following weekend.

#3: Disconnect

Disconnecting is the most important strategy on this list, because if you can’t find a way to remove yourself electronically from your work, then you’ve never really left work. Making yourself available to your work 24/7 exposes you to a constant barrage of stressors that prevent you from refocusing and recharging. If taking the entire weekend off handling work e-mails and calls isn’t realistic, try designating specific times on Saturday and Sunday for checking e-mails and responding to voicemails. For example, check your messages on Saturday afternoon while your kids are getting a haircut and on Sunday evenings after dinner. Scheduling short blocks of time will alleviate stress without sacrificing availability.

Bringing It All Together

As simple as these strategies may seem, they are difficult to implement when your mind is clouded with stress. Force yourself to attempt them the next time your head is spinning, and you’ll reap the benefits that come with disciplined stress management.

Travis Bradberry,  CONTRIBUTOR

I cover emotional intelligence and leadership performance.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

How do you manage stress? Please share your thoughts in the comments section as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-founded TalentSmart.

Forbes.com | September 29, 2016 

#Leadership : 7 Ways to Master Poise Under Pressure…The reality is Business isn’t Always in the Flow of Success. Heartbreak, Hardship & Challenge Occur that are Largely Out of Your Control. It’s Just the Nature of the Beast.

/in /by

Business is full of challenge. There are going to be losses, heartbreaks, bad days, slow months and less-than-stellar years. For this reason, business always brings with it a certain amount of pressure. There is the pressure to succeed, the pressure to keep up with your competitors and the pressure to grow the business.

Sad businessman sitting at workplace and trying to find solution of problem

Like any great athlete under this type of stress, you must manage yourself well and show grace under fire. You must be able to manage your emotions well enough to stay calm, mature and rational amidst stressful or problematic circumstances. When under intense stress it is natural to feel panicky, but to have poise under pressure you must learn to harness fear and panic through training yourself to possess self-control.

1. Take a moment.

It’s incredibly effective to take a step back when feeling stressed and just breathe. Oxygen helps the brain process emotion. When you are in fight or flight, your brain receives less oxygen, as you tend to take shorter and more shallow breaths when under stress. When you force yourself to take a moment to take a few deep breathes before reacting, you counteract your body’s natural reaction to your stressful situation. When you inhale deeply and exhale slowly it grounds you to this very moment allowing you to slow your thinking down.  As increased oxygen floods the brain your thoughts become more rational. Breathing calms your heart rate, which becomes naturally accelerated by the flood of adrenaline into your bloodstream. As you allow your breath to slow things down, you will feel more calm, collected and graceful. You are lift out of feeling like the current situation is a threatening emergency and are able begin thinking about resolutions.

Related: The 3 Ways Ego Will Derail Your Career Before It Really Begins

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

2. Choose your thoughts.

In order to establish a sense of self-control you have to force yourself to think positively about your situation. Learn to focus on solutions, not problems. This helps you not to react negatively in high-pressure situations. Self-talk is a great way to get yourself to calm down and to start thinking rationally. The brain responds immediately to solution-focused thinking. The natural reaction to challenge is to feel defeated or distressed. Tell yourself there are solutions for every problem and begin the process of thinking of what those could be, or even better take a minute and jot some thoughts down. Tell yourself that you have the experience, skill and instincts to handle the issue you’re dealing with. Be mindful to stay away from using negative words like; “can’t,” “won’t,” or “impossible. Train yourself to look at the positive perspective of; this situation is not happening to me it’s happening for me, to keep yourself cool under the pressure of uncertainty.

Related: Lessons on Overcoming Obstacles From a Pair of Immigrant Entrepreneurs

3. Be an example.

Whenever you are in a leadership position, one way to stay composed is to remember you always have an audience. Your team members and other colleagues expect a certain level of integrity and grit from you as their leader. You are their example. Train yourself to keep in mind that you are being looked at as an example for how to behave in all situations, but especially high-pressured circumstances which call for your resiliency, intelligence and the ability to stay calm. Knowing you have an audience acts to anchor your chaotic emotions and also serves as a strong motivator to practice self-management under stressful circumstances. Your colleagues, friends, and family members can all draw positive perspectives from you when you handle high-pressure situations with maturity and self-control.

Related: What Producer Jerry Zaks Can Teach You About Overcoming Obstacles

4. Emulate a role model.

If you cannot figure out a solution, look to the mentors you have in your life and generate what you think they would do in your current dilemma, or imagine what they would advise you to do. Every great leader should have a leader who has led them. In generating the idea of what this role model would do or how your role model would handle your current challenge you naturally begin to get out of your own reactive emotions and into the mind of another and solutions will begin to generate. Emulate how you think they would react and respond. Taking these types of cues has an instant calming effect on a chaotic mind. It also puts you in a place to want to impress and do well. We never work harder for anything than for the admiration of our uppers, peers, coaches, or mentors.

5. Brainstorm.

When you’re feeling stressed, be proactive. Train your mind to ask questions out loud. As you hear yourself ask yourself the best way to fix or overcome your problem you start the natural process of brainstorming and quick solutions begin to surface. It’s even better to brainstorm with your team. As all of you put your minds together and share input, suggestions and ideas, things begin to calm down because the focus has moved to finding ways through or around the problem from being stuck in the problem. Brainstorming takes your focus off the pressure and allows you to be graceful in your efforts to make things better.

6. Focus on the big picture.

The hardest thing not to do when you’re feeling pressured is to catastrophize your situation and imagine every possible horrible outcome that could possibly come from a failure right now. Train yourself to view the current high-stress situation as an individual or isolated issue. This will help you control your urge to project your thoughts onto what could happen going forward. This helps you stay focused on the dilemma at hand. Keep in perspective that this one issue, in the realm of all possibility for your future, is not that big of a deal. This is simply a time of reinvention, reorganization, recalculating, adjusting and starting again. When you can look at the bigger picture and feel its vastness it brings a calming quality to your mind as you realize that where you are at and the pressure you are currently under is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new solution to a temporary problem.

7. Visualize the positive.

When pressures are intense it is easy to only visualize all the negative that is happening or could happen if this problem isn’t solved. To stop this type of doubt and emotional chaos take a moment and close your eyes. Focus on the mental image of what you would like the outcome to be. Imagine the problem has already been solved and you have moved through this situation in the best way possible. Visualize and experience the emotional satisfaction and success you feel as you see yourself succeeding and moving past this issue. It is well worth it to take time in this way to direct your thoughts towards a successful resolution. When you can visualize yourself at the finish line and see the success, you will naturally feel calmer. You will have more faith and feel better prepared to take on the adversity at hand.

The reality is business isn’t always in the flow of success. Heartbreak, hardship and challenge occur that are largely out of your control. It’s the nature of the beast. This makes it important to know what to do during the more challenging times, as well as the good times. It’s easy to celebrate and pop the champagne when your numbers are climbing, but it also needs to be as easy to react deliberately and calmly when the obstacles come.

Entrepreneur.com | June 16, 2016 | SHERRIE CAMPBELL

 

Your #Career : 3 Signs That You’re Burnt Out…Take some Time to Honestly Assess the Amount of Stress in your Life & Find Ways to Reduce It Before it’s Too Late. Burnout isn’t Like the Flu; it Doesn’t Go Away After a Few Weeks Unless you Make some Changes in your Life

/in /by

We often hear about how workers are disengaged. A Gallup poll found that only around one out of every eight employees worldwide are actually fully engaged in their work, and the remaining seven are disengaged, at least to some degree.

Free- Bubble on the Bubble

Sometimes, this lack of engagement results from a lack of interest in what you’re doing. “I dreamed of being a photographer my whole life, but I took this job as a secretary because it pays well,” or “I always wanted to be an artist, but I work at this dentist’s office to pay the bills” — those stories are all too common. It’s not often that we hear about people who dreamed their entire lives about becoming astronauts, doctors, or musicians, and how they are actually successful in those particular career paths.

 Pace yourself. If you value your job, care for it like you would anything else that you care about — work evenly and at the appropriate pace. It’s unwise to give it an abundance of attention for several months, get burnt out, and have to neglect portions of your work, and then start the cycle all over again.

Even if you have your dream career, you can only give so much of yourself to your job before it starts to take a toll. Sure, give 100% while you are at work, but when it’s time to go home, work should be done until the next work day. There are some really great companies out there these days, ones that know attracting and keeping talent means giving a little to get a lot. Some companies have onsite daycare, some allow their employees to telecommute, and others have recreational facilities onsite so that employees can get some time away from their desks to stretch their legs and have a little fun.

No matter how many perks are offered, how much an employer tries to set you up for success, or how much you like what you’re doing, at the end of the day, it’s partly up to you to manage your own work-life balance. Work can be addictive. Checking emails during off-work hours, reviewing reports at night, and logging into systems because you just want to check “one thing real quick” can be unhealthy.

After a while, the line blurs, and work life and home life are really no different. This can be so unhealthy that Germany was actually considering passing a law prohibiting people from sending work-related emails after 6 p.m. “There is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness,” Labor Minister Andrea Nahles told the Rheinische Post.

What do you think about Germany’s potential future decision to make emailing after 6 p.m. illegal? Do you think you’re working too hard? Here are a few signs you may be so stressed out that you’re becoming burnt out.

1. Coffee does nothing

More than half of American adults drink coffee on a daily basis. You may be thinking, “I’ve become kind of immune to coffee because I drink a few cups every day.” But coffee should still affect you to some degree, no matter who you are. So if you can drink a cup or two of Joe and then easily nap afterwords, you may be so stressed out that you just want to zonk out.

“The EEG machines that show increased brain activity post-coffee don’t lie — but some people swear that caffeine doesn’t affect them. What’s probably happening with these caffeine denialists, says [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][study author Michael Breus], is that they’re so exhausted that their levels of calm-inducing neurotransmitters are very high. Theseneurotransmitters help override caffeine’s effects, or they set to work on a different area of the brain to kick-start the sleep process — so the caffeine is working, but the coffee drinkers aren’t reacting to it. In other words, they’re not superhuman; they’re just super-tired,” according to data published in a Huffington Post report.

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

2. You’re experiencing physical symptoms

According to WebMD, the physical symptoms of stress include the following:

  • Low energy
  • Headaches
  • Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea
  • Aches, pains, and tense muscles
  • Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
  • Insomnia
  • Frequent colds and infections
  • Loss of sexual desire and/or ability
  • Nervousness and shaking, ringing in the ear
  • Cold or sweaty hands and feet
  • Excess sweating
  • Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing
  • Clenched jaw and grinding teeth.

Burnout can effect more than just your ability to put your best face forward — it can actually make you physically sick. That’s not to mention all of the emotional and mental health-related problems you can experience as a result of too much work stress, as well. These emotional symptoms range from feeling frustrated and overwhelmed to avoiding your loved ones.

 

3. Success doesn’t feel like success

When you do well at your job — when you receive accolades from your superiors, clients, or coworkers — does that rejuvenate you, or does it feel like you don’t deserve the praise (or that the praise doesn’t really matter)?

If you are a high achiever, you may be particularly susceptible to this symptom. At first, you give 200 percent of yourself — you over perform and everything is going really well. Except, there’s one big problem: You’re overdoing it, putting way too much into your job and seeing it as a sprint instead of a marathon. This sets you up for short-term success that cannot be maintained over the long run.

Because you excelled so much in the beginning, you place more and more pressure on yourself. And, according to Psychology Today: “Irritability often stems from feeling ineffective, unimportant, useless, and an increasing sense that you’re not able to do things as efficiently or effectively as you once did. In the early stages, this can interfere in personal and professional relationships. At its worst, it can destroy relationships and careers. … Despite long hours, chronic stress prevents you from being as productive as you once were, which often results in incomplete projects and an ever-growing to-do list. At times, it seems that as hard as you try, you can’t climb out from under the pile.”

If any of these signs or symptoms sound like you, it’s time to take action. “Take some time to honestly assess the amount of stress in your life and find ways to reduce it before it’s too late. Burnout isn’t like the flu; it doesn’t go away after a few weeks unless you make some changes in your life,” says Psychology Today.

Pace yourself. If you value your job, care for it like you would anything else that you care about — work evenly and at the appropriate pace. It’s unwise to give it an abundance of attention for several months, get burnt out, and have to neglect portions of your work, and then start the cycle all over again.

CheatSheet.com | April 28, 2016 | 

 

 [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

#Strategy : Stressed Out At Work? How to Train Your Brain to Fix It…According to the World Health Organization, Stress costs Businesses in the United States around $300 Billion per Year, in Terms of Absenteeism, Employee Turnover, & in Losses of Productivity.

/in /by

“Most of us are training ourselves to be incredibly good worriers, or not being able to sleep, or not being able to have good relationships,” Burton explained. Practicing mindfulness is a way to combat that, without any “woo-woo” nonsense, as Burton calls it. Mindfulness isn’t oddball chants tied to the mystical or spiritual. “It’s brain training, pure and simple,” he said. 

Free- Barbed Wire

Around the age of 40, executive Joe Burton was experiencing what he calls “unhappiness at full speed.” He lost two siblings at young ages, wrenched his back, and suffered from insomnia. He served as a COO at several multibillion dollar companies and was finding great success in his career, but he was burning out – quickly.Stress was killing him, if not literally, then certainly in terms of his mental well-being and productivity.

According to the World Health Organization, stress costs businesses in the United States around $300 billion per year, in terms of absenteeism, employee turnover, and in losses of productivity. According to the University of Massachusetts Lowell, health care expenditures are 50% higher for employees who report high levels of stress, and absenteeism can cost large U.S. companies around $3.6 million each year. Another analysis shows high levels of stress contributes to at least 120,000 deaths in the U.S. each year and health care costs of $125 to $190 billion.

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

To ease that burden on himself and on others, Burton decided to take a step back from the traditional executive sphere and instead focus on technology that could help people in similar situations. For Burton, that meant focusing on mindfulness. “There are literally thousands of studies correlating mindfulness training across a wide array of health and performance benefits,” Burton said in an interview with The Cheat Sheet.

According to Burton, the average person spends about 47% of their time with their mind wandering, thinking about the past, worrying about the future, or focusing on regrets or anxieties. The brain follows established patterns, meaning over time it grows more ingrained to accept those distractions. 

“Most of us are training ourselves to be incredibly good worriers, or not being able to sleep, or not being able to have good relationships,” Burton explained. Practicing mindfulness is a way to combat that, without any “woo-woo” nonsense, as Burton calls it. Mindfulness isn’t oddball chants tied to the mystical or spiritual. “It’s brain training, pure and simple,” he said.

With mindfulness training, Burton eased his back pain and restored his ability to get a good night’s sleep. Mindfulness is also tied to relieving symptoms of PTSD, addictions, and can even have biometric effects likelowering blood pressure. With that in mind, Burton founded Whil (pronounced “will”), a company that provides mindfulness exercises for employees and individuals who are looking to relieve the stress in their lives. It’s geared toward driven professionals who “know they’re not going to slow down but also need help,” Burton explained.

Whil has three main branches. Now is geared toward adults, both in professional and personal capacities, and leads people through mindfulness and yoga exercises with videos created by trained experts. Grow is a similar platform, but is designed for teenagers. Burton said to his knowledge, Whil’s program is the first of its kind for teens.

“Happiness begins at home, but so does stress,” he said. The goal of Grow is to equip teenagers to handle stress appropriately, before ingraining stress patterns into their lives. A third branch, Search Inside Yourself, isbased on the book written by former Google engineer Chade-Meng Tan. Those sessions, also all online, provide employees with emotional intelligence lessons and ways to improve leadership and teamwork through the lens of mindfulness. 

“The beauty of our program is everything was mapped against the leading causes of diseases and was made for the individual,” Burton said. An employee can log into their company-sponsored account when they’re having a particularly difficult time focusing, or can log on if they’re experiencing the death of a loved one.

“The thing I’m excited about is the teachers that we’re working with are really world class – the content we’ve created is just amazing,” Burton said. Once you sign up, you can search for meditations or yoga sessions based on how you’re feeling, what you’d like to accomplish (become more aware, connect with others, experience gratitude, etc.), and how long you have. Some sessions are just one minute, others are about 10 minutes or so. Mindfulness and yoga both have introductory lessons, followed by a library of hundreds of videos based around certain goals. 

The “ground swell” of interest around the topic of mindfulness has really made a difference in the last few years, Burton said, but individuals and companies will have a number of reasons for trying it. Individuals might want to become more productive or alleviate stressors, while companies may want to lower their health care burdens by meeting the needs of their employees. “Different people are interested in creating new habits for different reasons,” Burton said. Whil is optimized to work on a desktop or a mobile device using headphones. “For us, we think mobile devices are the best stress-delivering mechanism ever invented,” Burton said. In this case, the devices that often cause the most distractions can also be the vehicle for stress relief. 

Follow Nikelle on Twitter and Facebook

CheatSheet.com | February 19, 2016 | Nikelle Murphy

 

#Leadership : 5 Signs of Work Stress That You Should Never Ignore…Simply Recognizing That you’re Stressed & Taking Steps to Change your Work Environment or How you Respond to It can Be very Helpful

/in /by

Everyone has the occasional stressful day at the office. But for some, work-related stress is a chronic problem. Sixty-five percent of Americans named work as their top source of stress, the American Psychological Association(APA) found. Eighty percent of people surveyed by Monster said they experienced the Sunday night blues, and 76% of those characterized those blues as “really bad.”

Free- Bubble on the Bubble

Work-related anxiety does more than just put a damper on your weekend, however. In men, chronic stress is linked to a host of health problems.

 “Men under stress are more likely than women to report having been diagnosed with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease or heart attack,” Simon A. Rego, PsyD, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Everyday Health.

Unfortunately, men may be more likely than women to ignore or downplay stress, both at work and in their personal lives.

“Men notoriously have trouble putting their feelings into words,” Edward Hallowell, author of Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD, told WebMD. “They bottle things up so they’re more subject to the damages of stress.”

Simply assuming that stress is a normal part of your work routine could also be causing you to miss your body’s attempts to warn you that the pressure is too much. If you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms, they might be due to work-related stress.

1. Frequent headaches

Frequent headaches are one of the biggest physical signs of stress, according to The American Institute of Stress. Over-the-counter pain relievers may help to relieve the occasional work-related tension headache, according tothe Cleveland Clinic, but if your headaches are chronic, you might need to explore stress management techniques, counseling, or even anti-anxiety medication or antidepressants.

Migraine headaches that happen over the weekend could also be a sign that the pressure at work is too much, since sudden decrease in stress levels may trigger these severe headaches, reported Prevention. Maintaining a consistent eating and sleeping schedule could reduce the chances you’ll experience a weekend migraine.

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 800K+ Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 10K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

2. Jaw pain

If you’re stressed, you may be clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth at night and not even realize it. Jaw pain, earaches, and headaches are all signs of bruxism, which might be caused by day-to-day stress. Practicing stress-relieving techniques like meditation might help minimize teeth clenching and grinding, as can consciously trying to relax your face during the day. If you grind your teeth at night, your dentist may tell you to wear a mouth guard to prevent damage to your teeth.

3. Upset stomach

A stressful situation at work could be the reason behind your stomachache or other gastrointestinal troubles, like constipation. That’s because “the brain and the digestive tract share many of the same nerve connections,” Douglas A. Drossman, M.D., a gastroenterologist and psychiatrist and co-director of the University of North Carolina Center for Functional GI and Motility Disorders, told Eating Well.

Altering your diet can help minimize stress-related tummy trouble. High-fiber foods like oatmeal can help regulate digestion, while fatty fish like salmon and sardines may reduce inflammation that exacerbates your stomach problems. Sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and junk food can all make your stress worse, says the Stress Management Society.

4. Breakouts and other skin problems

If your skin suddenly looks like you’re back in high school, tough times at work could be the cause. Your body’s chemical response to stress can increase breakouts, since your body is producing more cortisol, which in turn can lead to oily skin and acne flare-ups, according to WebMD. If you suffer from dry skin, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, or other skin problems, stress can also exacerbate those conditions.

If you’re too focused on work-related troubles, you may forget to wash your face, not get enough sleep, or eat poorly, all of which can make skin problems worse. Sticking to your regular skin care regimen can help reduce breakouts, as can getting enough sleep, exercising, and drinking plenty of water.

5. Hair loss

Hair loss is a fact of life for many men, often linked to genetics, aging, or a decrease in testosterone. But if your hair is coming out in handfuls when you comb or wash it, you might have telogen effluvium, a condition that can be triggered by stress, as well as by certain medications or infections.

Occasional stress isn’t enough to cause sudden baldness, though. “Stress because you’re late to work or you’ve got a heavy workload is not going to cause you to lose hair,” dermatologist Paradi Mirmirani, MD, told WebMD. Long-term stress that causes other physical changes, like dramatic weight loss or big shifts in diet, could trigger hair loss, however. The good news is that this kind of hair loss is often temporary and may stop once you get your stress under control.

Tips for Reducing Work Stress

While you can take steps to alleviate some of the physical symptoms of stress, those remedies aren’t likely to address the underlying cause of your anxiety. Identifying stress triggers and finding ways to manage them may be the best way to reduce the headaches, stomach pains, and other stress-related problems that you’re experiencing, as well as to avoid the long-term term health problems that constant stress may cause.

Exercising, practicing meditation, creating boundaries between your job and the rest of your life, and taking time to relax and recharge can all be ways to manage work stress, says the APA. Making changes to your workspace and getting more organized at the office may also make you happier at work, since cramped and cluttered desks can exacerbate stress, according to a report in Time magazine.

Simply recognizing that you’re stressed and taking steps to change your work environment or how you respond to it can be very helpful, say experts. “People feel less stressed when they take control of a situation,” psychologist Emma Kenny told The Guardian.

 

CheatSheet.com | January 25, 2016 | 

Follow Megan on Twitter @MeganE_CS