Unless You're Being Shot -- It's Not that Stressful

I used to work with a guy who said that every time we were on deadline for the magazine. I thought it was funny and pretty true. Stress is something we perceive. It's how we manage that perception that can either feel stressful or not. Think about it. Unless someone really is firing a gun at you maybe life isn't as stressful and you "feel" it is.

I always liked what the book The Secret said about time: there is always enough time. I was thinking about stress because I was running late for a meeting yesterday. The phrase, there is always enough time soothed me in that moment. The "stress" melted away. Perception! I perceived it stressful because I was running late. But when I put a different message through my mind, the stress alleviated itself.

My point is most stress is about perception and what we put on ourselves. Our self-talk is directly related to our stress levels. I'll give you another example. For some unexplainable reason I put a lot of pressure on myself to get stuff done for my business. The underlining pressure always exists and motivates me which is sometimes good except then I realized it was taking a lot of the enjoyment factor out of my work. I love what I do. I realized this invisible pressure was coming from within. I needed to stop doing that to myself: and hence reader that's is what we in this society are doing. We are stressing ourselves out. So let me get back to the original line: unless you're being shot at ... it's not stress! Think about it!