Stress Management
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20 grams to 500 grams.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short Enjoy it!
I was forced to terminate an employee years ago for having reported to work drunk. It was not his worst offense, but it was his last. When I sat him down to break the news to him, I said:
"John, I swore when I took this job that I'd never take a problem to bed with me at night. It was, and is, my intention to deal with problems swiftly and to move on. John, you and I have been to bed together too many times. You're fired."
The company I worked for profited from my having pulled the trigger.
Stress is often caused by allowing problems to fester and problem employees to accumulate.
Want to control work-related stress? Deal with your problems. Once. Swiftly. Move on.
