5 Ways to Avoid Stress

For many years I allowed my stress to control me. The problem would get so bad that I would wake up in a cold sweat several days a week. I allowed the stress to consume my thoughts. It made me a miserable person, destroyed a marriage, and had I not figured out ways to deal with it, I’m not sure I’d be here today. Here are 5 ways to avoid stress that I wish I had known back then:

1. Live Within Your Means—One sure-fire way to stress yourself out is to get in over your head financially. It’s easy to get overrun with credit card debt. One rule I learned was to avoid carrying credit card balances. If you can’t pay it off at the end of month, don’t buy it. An easy solution is to pay cash. It’s much harder to part with the money when you pay in cash. If you don’t have the cash you can’t make the purchase.

The best long-term solution is to create a budget. List your income in one column and all of you expenses in another column. Determine the amount you need for necessities—mortgage/rent, grocery store bills, utilities, medical, etc. This is your monthly nut. Next, provide yourself an allowance for things like entertainment, clothes, and merchandise. You should also determine a percentage of your income that goes to savings, investing, and paying down debt. Track your monthly expenditures and stick to your budget.
2. Combine your livelihood with your passion—If you get paid to do what you love, you will experience far less stress and since most of us spend the majority of our waking life working, your quality of life will dramatically improve.
3. Get out of the weeds. The stress is in the details. I have found that the most stressful part of business is in the daily operations. The more involved you are in the inner workings of the day-to-day activities, the more stressful it is. This isn’t only true in business. I did some home renovations to my Colorado house while living in Florida and experienced very little stress because I didn’t get sucked into the minutia. I’m currently doing a renovation on a place in Florida while living down the street, and it’s much more stressful because I’m involved in every detail.
4. Optimism—See things as you would like them to be. Many of us look at the worst-case scenario. Focusing on the worst case not only causes stress, but can also increase the probability that it occurs because you are putting your attention and energy into it. Instead, try to visualize the outcome you desire and tune into the feeling of that positive outcome.
5. Strong defense—No matter what you do or who you are, at some point stressors will impact your life. The question is, are you equipped deal with them? Having practices in place that allow you to “get out of your head” and dissipate negative energy can be the difference between effective coping and mental breakdown. Practices like exercise, meditation, and hobbies that provide an escape from the trials and tribulations of daily life, can help put things in perspective and equip you to better deal with challenges as they arise.

As I look at the title for this week’s blog “5 Ways To Avoid Stress,” it is clear that we can’t completely avoid stressors, so it’s critical to develop skills to deal with them. We know that actions are preceded by thoughts, so therefore stress begins with a thought. “Our single greatest weapon against stress is the ability to choose one thought over another” William James. You have this ability. Choose your thoughts wisely.