How to Get Rid of Stressors

Every now and then I feel completely overwhelmed by the things going on in my life. I get frustrated and I want to throw my hands up and cry "uncle". But then I realize that it never even had to go that far. In all reality, I'm in control of several things that have an impact on my life, even if there are others that I'm not in control of.

I have to stop and take inventory. What's causing me to feel so stressed out? Is there anything I can do to reduce my stress? What are the things I have control over and the things I don't?

Take a look around. I mean physically look around you. Is your environment causing you stress? When my house is a mess, it makes me feel like I am a mess. I have a hard time concentrating and my production level goes way down. Since I work at home, that means my cash flow goes down as well. I can resolve this by simply cleaning the house and delegating chores to my son so it doesn't all fall on me. After all, I'm not the one who spread the war between G.I. Joe and the Star Wars crew all over the living room floor!

Consider your social world. What kind of people are you hanging around with? Do these people motivate you to be productive while accepting you for who you are? Or are the people in your life causing you stress in the way of gossip or negative activities that discourage you from reaching your goals. I have a simple rule. If I can't say something nice about someone then I shouldn't say anything at all. That also means not listening to gossip. Try that one out for a day and see how many people you actually end up talking to!

Take a look at your hobbies. Are they doing anything good for you? For instance, I might want to have a few drinks now and then. Of course, if I'm having a few drinks, I'm not really being productive unless it's one of those cleaning binge days where I enjoy music and a couple of glasses of wine with my cleaning spree. Otherwise, a couple of drinks can not only destroy my productivity for the day I drink, but the next day as well because I don't care who you are, working with a hangover just isn't as productive as it could be.

Is there too much on your plate? I work at home, take my classes online and take care of my son. There isn't a lot of room for anything else. However, every now and then I am silly enough to get involved in another project as well. Why? Because I sometimes think that my plate can never really be full. That is, I forget until I can't carry it anymore and the things that are really important to me begin to suffer.

You don't have to stop doing everything that isn't productive. Just do it in moderation. We all need to take days off when we don't do anything at all that's productive. If we don't take these days off, we tend to build upon existing stress. But, make sure you keep to a schedule that works for you and surround yourself with positive people. If you have goals you want to meet, take a look around at the people you spend time with. Are they in a different position than they were 10 years ago? Can you see them in a different position in the 10 years to comes? Quite often we allow ourselves to be caught up in someone else's lack of goals - only that's not really where we want to be. Sometimes we just have to brutally carve those types of stressors right out of our lives. It's not being rude to anyone, it's being good to ourselves.