The Stress Advantage: How To Thrive Under Pressure And Challenges

One vital key to exceptional life and career success is how we respond to stressful circumstances, challenges and pressures. Here are three insights into how to be more resilient, resourceful and how to take charge of your stress levels and make stress work to your advantage.

1. Understanding “Stress.”

What is “stress,” in practical terms? Simply put, “stress” is what you experience when you believe you can’t “rise to the challenge.” It’s just too much for you…and you feel it on emotional, spiritual and physical levels. Those who thrive under challenging circumstances know how to "optimize" their stress levels. How do you do that?

First, it is important to understand that “stress” doesn’t automatically happen. Instead, it is created when we believe we aren’t “up to the task.” So, the key is not to eliminate “stressful situations,” which is impossible; the key is to build in new resources so you are up to the challenge.

One of your most important resources in responding to stress is your belief system: what you believe about yourself and what you're capable of...and how you view stress. For instance, stress can be the catalyst for challenging the status quo and creating something better. A challenging situation can be a wake up call and change the rest of your life in the most positive of ways.

What do you believe about your capacity to deal with overwhelming situations? Wisdom would dictate that we realize how much we are capable of learning and set ourselves on a course to master skills that will be useful for future challenges. We cannot control what “life” brings to us always, but we have more influence than we think!

It’s about improving our beliefs, our behaviors, our skill-sets and ourselves so that we are ready for the unexpected.

2. Eliminate The Stress” Before It Begins.

Now, this is a brilliant strategy and you will be regarded as a genius the more you use it…because it seems that few do! It falls into the category of being proactive rather than reactive. In effect, you are preventing a problem or stressor from happening in the first place.

An example would be going to your boss and explaining early on that a project will be delayed vs. waiting until the last minute to inform her. Or you apologize to your significant other right away when you’ve blown it versus having an argument that creates hurt feelings and then apologizing after the fact. The former is being proactive and the latter is being reactive...and being reactive is like putting the cart before the horse; it won’t get you anywhere.

3. Nurture Your Relationships.

Your key relationships at home, work and play are “antioxidants” to stress and help build your immune system. Choose one of your relationships and decide to do one thing today that will make that relationship even better.

The next time you are having a conflict with a friend or family member, ask yourself what is more important: the relationship or being right? The relationship or being vindicated? The relationship or venting your feelings at the wrong time in the wrong way? Put things into perspective and your stress will melt away.

Nurture your relationships because relationships are the foundation for everything else. How you treat others is a litmus test for who you have decided to be. Your treatment of others will also create stress for you or bring you fulfillment and peace of mind.

Begin by treating yourself with love and respect. Be good to yourself. Treat yourself the way others would treat you if they were acting in your best interest…and you will eliminate an immeasurable amount of stress before it even happens.

So now, you have three strategies to "optimize" your stress. Let me know how you experiment with these three strategies; I would love to hear from you. Until next time…