We often hear our lives are now made more convenient. We have been searching for ease and comfort trying to accumulate items to make our lives better, and now resources are abundant giving us information, products, and services faster than ever. So why do we have so much stress and anxiety? We got what we wanted, didn’t we? News flash, our current world is almost designed to increase stress on a regular basis. A fast paced, instant gratification, over-stimulated, fight or flight world is what we are currently living in, causing a spike in our stress levels.
It is time to take back the control of your lifestyle, thoughts, emotions, and overcome stress by making a commitment to these 3 ways successful people overcome stress.
1) Practice Gratitude
“Gratitude is the best attitude!”
Cliche but true… A positive and gracious attitude can be created if practiced on a daily basis. By keeping a gratitude journal you can make yourself aware of the aspects of your life that affect you in a positive manner. By doing this, you have now written a script for a positive life making you less likely to compare yourself to others, and increase your ability to combat stressful situations with a sense of gratefulness towards things you already appreciate.
Challenge: Keep a gratitude journal for the next 2 weeks. Each night before bed write down 2 things you are grateful for that day.
2) Be Patient and Understand the Process
“Patience is a virtue.”
Cliche and true, again… The uprising of ease and comfort in our lives has taught us some really bad habits. As a consumer we are looking for fast, easy products and services. This has caused an inability to practice patience in high stress situations when patience is the exact thing that is needed. Having access to whatever we want has changed us and not for the better. Internet won’t load? Stuck in traffic? 5-7 business days for a shipped product to arrive? Want to lose weight? Feel stuck at your job? Mom, the meatloaf?!?! (For all my Wedding Crashers fans out there!)
Understand the process and practice patience when trying to achieve your goals. You may not be getting what you want in the present moment, but you become more understanding, compassionate, and emphatic with others. Your ability to positively process what you are currently going through increases, as will your ability to determine what it takes to overcome your current obstacles. Appreciate the process of hard work through adversity, understanding through that process is where personal growth comes from. This results in more fulfilling work, relationships, and lifestyle.
Challenge: Purposefully practice patience by unplugging from all technology a couple nights a this week. You may put your personal goals on hold to appreciate others areas in your life.
3) Create Routines
“The secret of your success is in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell
Not cliche, still true… Routine has been a word that has put me off since my childhood. I would purposefully try to avoid routine to spite my parents. Ha, I showed them! Now I have realized that great routines give me energy, purpose, clarity, and allow me to accomplish the important things in my life.
I don’t believe in strict routines because if you fail then it creates this mindset of worry through unpreparedness. I believe you can create 5 habits you want to incorporate, and if you complete 3 out of the 5 it’s a win for that particular routine and day. Obviously 5 out of 5 will make you a hero though probably give you superpowers, so try to get all 5.
A solid morning routine sets yourself up for a productive day putting you in the right mindset of achievement and joy. But without a great bedtime routine you probably aren’t getting enough quality sleep to practice your morning routine with intention. Both are very important as you can see.
Try incorporating some of the following into your morning and bedtime routines to combat past and future stressors in your life.
- Time Gap: Give yourself an allotted time to wake up and go to bed (ie. 6:15 – 6:45 a.m. and 9:30-10:30 p.m.). This frees you from feeling anxious if you start your routine a little bit later on certain mornings/nights.
- Reading: Reading allows you time to get out of your own thoughts. You can explore new creative minds in a fictional story or read a self-help book to learn a new idea and spark motivation.
- Mindful Breathwork: By slowing down and practicing mindful breathwork you can put yourself in a better state of mind, temperament, and overall health.
- Meditation: Meditation can improve focus, reduce stress, improve self-awareness and happiness, and overall cardiovascular and immune health.
- Journaling: Journaling allows a moment to vent, create, practice gratitude, set goals etc.
- Exercise: Get your blood flowing with your daily workout or just get some light movement in. It can obviously improve your physical health as well as your mood and self confidence.
- Visualization: Visualize yourself being successful in future moments. Imagine yourself completing tasks, and achieving goals to create confidence and improved self-esteem. Also visualize those that you are helping and serving having success. Switching my visualization mindset has been something that has helped me tremendously.
Challenge: Pick 3 tasks listed above and create a morning and bedtime routine. Complete those routines for a week. Does creating 2 routines stress you out? Just create 1 and use it for both, morning and bedtime.