Stress Less

Brian Tracy is famous for his comment that failures do what is 'tension relieving', while winners do what is 'goal achieving'. While we all like to be winners rather than losers, I believe that a truly successful person learns to strike a balance between the two polarities.

The challenge in modern life seems to be balancing the amount of goal achieving activities with relieving tension. How do you find time to achieve all you want to, while not stressing yourself half to death?

In this article, I'd like to share eight simple ideas that can help you in the short and long term to relieve stress and help you stay on track with your goals.

1) Choose Optimism

Most people don’t acknowledge how much the way they see the world has an effect on their stress levels. Whether you realise it or not, pessimism and negative self-talk can cause you significant amounts of stress over the course of your life.

Of course, the way you see the world is truly up to you. You can see situations as threats or challenges, as beneficial or negative, as stressful or exciting.

With work and focus, your point of view can be changed. You might be suprised how much less stressed you would be if you omitted those self-defeating thought patterns.

2) Get Some Shut Eye

Being sleep deprived can be either a cause and/or an effect of being stressed. Too much stress can keep you up at night, while trying to operate on too few hours of sleep can make you less productive, more emotional, and more reactive to stressful events in your life.

Be sure to get at least 6 to 8 good restful hours of sleep each night. Discpline yourself to turn in about 10pm each night and you will wake up bright and fresh at 6am! It can be a habit to form, but it is rewarding once you get used to it. (If you feel you really need a sleep in, then use the weekends to get those extra hours.)

3) Have a Hobby

In our school years we were all involved in sports and fun activities, yet as working adults we can tend to let our hobbies and fun activities lapse. It is very important to keep learning, growing, and doing things you enjoy throughout your adult life, and having a regular hobby can provide a necessary outlet for mental stimulation and stress relief, and help you maintain a balanced lifestyle.

All work and no play can makes everyone a dull boy or girl, so be sure to block off time for your hobbies a few times a week. Taking care of yourself in this way can be an important step toward living the life you want to be living.

4) Build Your Social Circle

Humans are naturally social creatures, and the company we choose to keep has a huge impact on the quality of our lives. Good friends and close family celebrate with us during our good times and support us through our tough times. A strong social network of healthy relationships can be a buffer against stress and provide many other benefits.

You can strongly improve your quality of life by seeking out healthy new friendships, improving the relationships you already have, and letting go of relationships that drain you.

5) Cull Your Clutter

Living in an environment of chaos will create stress. We've all had the feeling of being overloaded by clutter, disorganized with our schedule, or carrying excess emotional baggage; it makes you feel scattered and reduces your mental resources. It's amazing how much clutter can rob us of our time (looking for keys and misplaced items), our money (paying late fees on bills we can’t find) and our peace of mind (cluttered spaces can actually drain your energy without you even realizing it).

Disciplining yourself to keep a reasonably tidy environment pays dividends. Invest in your peace of mind by becoming more organized with your time, giving away things you don’t need and maintaining your home at a neat and tidy level.

6) Create a Soundtrack to Your Life

Maybe all those millions of people with Ipods plugged into their ears are onto something... Listening to music is a simple and easy way to elevate your mood and rechange your energy levels. You can play music in your car during your commute to feel less stressed as you drive, or put music on as you exercise to infuse some extra oomf into your workout. You can even have music on in the background as you go about your day, bringing a more soothing and uplifting feel to a whole host of your daily activities.

If you're not a big music fan or don't already have your own favourite music, then perhaps try listening to some calming classical music, or some chillout tunes and see for yourself if you feel any better.


7) Have Quick Fix & Long-Term Stress Relief Practices

There are really two types of stress relief we can employ, and both are beneficial when used in the right way.

Quick-Fix: Sometimes stressful situations seem to build up quickly, and we go from feeling fine to overwhelmed in a very short period of time. When this happens, you can't really just stop your life to go practice yoga, get a massage, etc. Instead you have to have quick and effective ways to low down your fight or flight response. Take several deep breaths, take a time-out for 10 minutes from the situation, take a refreshing drink of water, getting a bit of quick physical exercise, will all help you temporarily relieve stress.

Long Term: The small stresses we experience can build up on us if we dont have long term stress relievers built into our life. Exercise, hobbies, socialising and personal development are all great examples of long term stress relievers. Pick one or two (or five!) to help you relieve stress on a long term level.

8) Have a Road Map for the Future

Some people claim that life can only be lived in the moment, yet there’s a big difference between being present in your life and feeling so stressed that you can only think about the end of the day.

Do you have a plan for your future in place? Are you expressing you true desires in life as much as you’d like to? Are you on the path to where you’d really like to be in life?

It’s a good idea to have a 3-5-year long term vision and even a 12-month plan for your personal life. This doesn’t mean a set-in-stone blueprint, but a idea of where you’d like to be in the future so you can move in that direction.


Of course, you can take goals and planning to an extreme too; remember that while achievement in life is fulfilling in the short term, there will always be another horizon past your current one. So be sure to take time to enjoy the journey as well.

In Conclusion

Use these 8 ideas to help you move into a more relaxed and stress free lifestyle. Choose one or two of the ideas to try out this week, and if they work, continue to practice them as habits. The more things you do to invest in reducing stress, the better you will perform. And maybe you can actually balance being both 'goal achieving' and 'tension relieving'.