Your Essential Guide To Stress Management

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www.SuccessNetworkGroup.com


We all have our own favorite expression when it comes to being stressed out. But when it comes down to it, I think it’s how we work, or even relaxed for that matter, that triggers stress. Ever been stressed out even when you're well relaxed and bored? I know I have. Here are some techniques that you can implement easily to help relieve your stress level.

It's important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful incidents, but no matter what they are going to happen. The best way to handle them when they do occur is to decrease your negative reactions to stress. Here are some of the things that can be done. You can do a few of them in a longer span of time, but you should try to use these techniques whenever you can as the situations occur.


Time Management
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Time management skills can allow you more time with your family and friends and increase your performance and productivity. This will also help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

- Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.

- Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time.

- Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you. Don't move on to an unimportant task until the top priorities are complete!

- Manage your commitments by not over, or under, committing. Don't commit to what is not important to you.

- Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines.

- Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.

- Build healthy coping strategies.


It is important that you identify your strategies for coping with different situations that could, and probably will, arise. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you handled it in a journal. With this information, you can work to change unhealthy strategies into healthy ones. Those changes will help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life. Jim Rohn (my favorite personal development mentor) says that "The same wind blows on us all, it's the set of your sails that determines the course you will take in your life ..." Think about this profound statement ... it is SO true!


Lifestyle
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Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the way your body seeks relief from stress.

Try these tips:

- Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations. This can be difficult at best sometimes and can be a source of stress on all by itself!

- Have a sense of purpose in life.

- Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.

- Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.

- Get moderate exercise throughout the week.

- Limit your consumption of alcohol.

- Don't smoke.


Social Support
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Social support is a major factor in how we experience and handle stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community. It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.


Changing Your Way of Thinking
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When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body's stress sensors, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress. Try to replace your negativeness with positive thoughts.

-Thought replacement helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress. Try to always see the "bright side" of any situation. This may be difficult, but it is necessary.

Let me tell you a quick story related to the last statement before moving on:

Four years ago I was laid off from my $80,000 per year job. We were on a 10 year contract for research and development of emerging Air Traffic Control Systems for the US government! Two years into the contract, we were given 3 days notice, no offer of alternate employment, and no severance pay! When the War in Iraq began, the government pulled all of our project money and put it towards Homeland Security. Now, we support our troops and our country to the fullest, but talk about a panic attack! Robin and I had no idea what to do or where to turn! They sent 200 people packing and put them out on the street. I admit that at first we were in panic mode and only saw the negative side of the situation. But after a few days we realized that this could be a blessing in disguise. This was the beginning of our Network Marketing careers and we have NEVER looked back since! It ended up being the BEST thing that ever could have happened! My personal stress level went down and my blood pressure actually dropped to normal levels and I didn't have to take my blood pressure medication any longer! My doctor asked me: "What did you do? Your blood pressure is normal!" My answer? "I got laid off!" Incredible!

So let's move on, I just wanted to share that story to make a point about the importance of last bulleted statement. It should not be overlooked!

- Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.

- You need to always identify all aspects of a stressful event and find positive ways to deal with it.


Changing your communication style helps you relate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

Even writers like me can get stressed even though we're just using our hands to do the talking. Having to sit for 7 or 8 hours at a time is already stressful enough, and we have our own methods to relieve stress. Whether you're the mail person, the CEO, or the average working parent, stress is an unwanted visitor you would love to remove from your home, work, and especially your life.


As Always ... Make it a GREAT day!

The Basics of Goal Setting

Copyright © Success Network Group
www.SuccessNetworkGroup.com


The basics of setting a goal is an open secret known by top-caliber athletes, successful businessmen (and businesswomen), and all types of achievers from all different fields and professions. The basics of setting goals give you short-term and long-term motivation and focus. They help you set focus on the acquisition of required knowledge and help you to plan and organize your resources and your time so that you can get the best out of your life.

Setting clearly defined short term and long term goals will enable you to measure your progress and achieve personal satisfaction once you have successfully met your goals. Charting your progress will also enable you to actually see the stages of completion leading to the actual realization of your goals. This eliminates the feeling of a long and pointless grind towards achieving your goal. Your self-confidence and level of competence will also improve as you will be more aware of your capabilities as you complete or achieve your goals.

The basics of goal setting involves deciding what you really want to do with your personal life and what short term and long term goals you need to achieve it. Then you have to break down your goals into smaller and more manageable targets that you must complete along your way to achieving your lifetime targets. Once you have created your list waste no time in working towards achieving your goals.

A good way to have a manageable list is to have a daily and weekly set of goals. By doing this you will always be in the position of moving towards your long term goals. Every day will give you the opportunity to fulfill a certain goal giving you the feeling of accomplishment.

Here are some pointers that should be taken into consideration in setting goals and achieving them:

Attitude plays a very big role in setting and achieving your goals. You must ask yourself if any part of you, your mind, or your environment is holding you back towards completion of even your simplest goals. Is there anything that is being a hindrance or putting your plans into disarray? If you do have problems in these areas, then you need to address these problems immediately. Solutions may include a visit to a doctor or psychiatrist to control your emotions, changing the people you hang around with, or changing your environment so that they are all conducive to obtaining your desired goals.

Careers are made by good time management practice and working towards established goals. Failing in a career is often attributed to bad time management. Careers require a lot from an individual which often makes the career the life of the individual. Plan how far you want to go into your career and maintain goals to help you reach the level of success you wish to achieve.

Education is paramount in achieving your goals. If your goals require you to have a certain kind of degree, or require a certain specialization, or demand a certain skill to be developed, make plans for receiving the appropriate education.

Also, your family should never be left out of your plans. If you are just starting out then you have to decide if you want to be a parent or when you want to be a parent if you aren’t one already. You also have to know if you really would be a good parent and how well you could relate to extended family members.

Personal financial situations also play a major role in achieving your goals. Have a realistic goal on how much you really want to earn. Make it a specific number, not an estimate or a range of numbers. You must be able to create plans or stages by which you will be able to reach your earning potential.

Physically gifted individuals may be able to achieve sports related goals like being in the National Basketball association or National Football League. Determining your physical capabilities should be one of your priorities. Physical limitations could however be conquered with proper planning and goal setting.

As the saying goes -'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy', or something to that effect, is by all means true down to the last the letter. Giving yourself a little pleasure should be included into your plans. You will drive yourself into the dirt if you just work, work, work and do nothing else. Rest and relaxation is a requirement and time should be set aside weekly to refresh your mind and give it a break.

To start achieving your lifetime goals, set a quarter of a century plan, then break it down to 5 year plans then break it down again to 1 year plans, then 6 month plans then monthly plans, then weekly, then daily. This gives you long term, mid-range and short term goals to aim for.

Use a planner and schedule your time for the entire week every Sunday. Sunday is a day off for me but I take the 30 to 60 minutes it takes to plan out my entire upcoming week. That way on Monday morning I can get right to work! First, list your projects or tasks that need to be completed, and then prioritize them according to importance. What will make the most impact on your life or business? These would be the top priorities, and so on down to the lowest priority. Next, you will schedule out your week on the planner pages. As you go through the week, make sure that each day, you complete your priority tasks FIRST before moving on to another task. You will see great improvements in the amount of meaningful work you get done throughout the week and how far you get working towards your ultimate goals.

Remember, as Jim Rohn states, “The major purpose of a goal is NOT the achievement of the goal, the achievement of the goal is secondary. The major purpose of a goal is what you become in the pursuit of it.”


As Always ... Make it a GREAT day!

The 5 Basics Of Team Building

Copyright © Success Network Group
www.SuccessNetworkGroup.com


There are 5 basic parts to building an effective and efficient team. If you incorporate these 5 basic principles you and your team will be successful and unstoppable!

Principle #1 - Training: In order to motivate people to learn, show them how the training can improve their lives and their potential. During this process, you will further your own goals through implementing and supporting learning activities. There are few things you need to keep in mind.

Don't skip the basics. They should be reviewed for everyone on a regular basis. They form the core foundation for everything that follows.

Use a "need to know" approach. Adults don't need broad training that isn't related to their job functions. They need specific training that will help them perform their duties, so tie the training offered into their daily functions.

Stress the personal benefits. Unfortunately, first and foremost, people are always interested in "WIIFM?" … What's In It For Me? If they don't see a personal benefit, they will not do what you are asking of them. So you need to show them how it benefits them personally as well as the team.

Give hands-on training. Experience is the best teacher. Most people, including myself, will learn a lot quicker and easier if they "Get their hands dirty." Simulation and role playing can be effective methods for hands-on training. Heck, they might even have fun with it and you never know what kind of creative ideas could pop up out of nowhere!

Keep the training session short. If they are too long, people will lose interest, become board, and not remember what they were taught. Teach them a lesson, allow them time to apply the lesson learned, and then move n to the next lesson. It is said that after 2 hours of straight training or lecture, the mind begins to wander and you aren't getting through to them any more anyway. So why waste your time and theirs? Keep it short and the training will be more effective.

Recognize that all people are different. Just because John comprehends the training immediately doesn't mean Mary will (and visa-versa). Have patience with the people who need more time and assistance than the others and give them what they need. In the long run they will be grateful and more efficient and effective.

Match the training to each individual person. If Mary works in the computer repair department and John simply uses a computer to help with his tasks, they obviously don't need the same training. Mary might need a computer repair course where John might need to know about spreadsheets.

Principle #2 - Delegating: You can't build a team without effective delegation. It's all too easy for a leader to fall into the trap of doing things themselves because they "want it done right." You have to learn to delegate tasks so that your time can be used optimally.

Have a clear definition of the task. Let them person know the results you are seeking and what benefits will come from completing the task rather than telling them how to do it. This allows for creativity. They come up with an idea that you never thought of which completes the task more efficiently or more productively.

Assign authority. Decide who is capable of performing the task and then give them the authority they need to complete the job on their own. Don't hold them back by micro-managing them.

Be crystal clear about who will be accountable for what. This will instill pride in their workmanship and will remain with the people delivering the results.

Offer guidelines. This reinforces your expectations to competent people and helps the unskilled or uncertain people learn what you expect from them.

Don't micro-manage! Monitor the progress of the tasks you have assigned, but don't hover over the people. You will make them nervous and resentful. It will give them the feeling that you are not confident of their abilities. If you micro-manage everything, you are not using your time effectively and you might as well do it yourself! At that point, what's the sense in delegating?

Provide feedback on progress. Ask the person their thoughts on the progress of the task. Offer suggestions, but don't make it concrete. You must allow for them to accept or reject your suggestion to a certain degree. Feedback, especially positive feedback, helps people improve and work harder towards accomplishing the intended goal. This is crucial!

Reward and recognize a job well done. Like feedback, positive reinforcement for a good effort is crucial. It allows people to feel they are doing a good job (assuming they are) and it motivates them to maintain the same level of competence and quality of work, if not improve upon it even further.

Principle #3 - Gratification: To maximize productivity and loyalty, create an atmosphere that is as stress free as possible. Finding a way to make the work enjoyable is conducive to people applying their talents and energy to reach the desired results.

Principle #4 - Directing: When you give people direction, challenge them to use their talents, and give them the independence to achieve their goal, you have helped them to fulfill their personal potential and that of the team. The team should create its mission statement itself. This gives them the pride of ownership. You can continue directing your team and use their mission statement and sense of pride as a motivator to achieve excellent results.

Principle #5 - Motivation: Directing your team is just the start. They have to be motivated! One of the best ways to motivate the team is through recognition and rewards. To most people recognition is more important than the pay associated with their successful completion of the task! It's commonly called "A Ego Trip." It sounds frivolous but it is important none the less. People thrive on it, some more than others, and it is a fantastic motivator!

Always praise your team in public, but correct them in private. There is no need to embarrass anyone and correcting people in public will eventually lead to embarrassing yourself. Nobody will want to be on your team, and productivity will slow down because everyone will be too afraid of being publicly ridiculed. They will take precautions and be extra careful not to make a mistake.

Praise what's right and train what's wrong. It's just plain stupid to fire somebody who needs training. Instead, get them the training they need. You never know, they could be your next superstar! Praise things that are working well to reinforce confidence. Provide training where improvement is required.

When you respect your team and work with them to improve, you create an atmosphere which breeds personal motivation in people and allows them to do their best. Build professionalism within your team by encouraging them to maintain a high standard of performance. Maintain the ideal that it's not the job you do, but how it is done that counts.


As Always ... Make it a GREAT day!