To Work and Live Without Stress

Too much of stress is bad for our health. And I believe the stress is not coming from the work or environment. It is coming from our thinking. I mean, it is generated by our own mind.  

Many people think that stress is coming from the work( or your boss ), environment or certain situition. It is not. When we are facing something, our mind is generating the stress. It is also saying that, we have the choice not to generate the stress, if we can adjust our mind.

We may work without stress. It is all depends on how we think when we are facing something. One of my regular jobs( on credit card system ) is to solve or to find out the cause of system problem. The System Support department always keep telling me that “The problem needs to be solved fast”. For me, I won’t tell myself or keep emphasizing that “I need to solve it fast”. I will tell myself, I just need to do whatever I need to do now and I don’t need to care about other things, just concentrate on looking for the cause of the problem. By this way, the stress does not exist at all. I just doing whatever I need to do now. This is the most important part. I have to know what should I do now. And the concentration is the first entity that making the stress does not be generated at all. If I don’t waste my time and always be trying my best, eventhough I pass the due date or due time, I won’t feel guilty. But most of the time, if I really concentrate on my work, I am able to deliver fast.  

If you keep telling yourself that “I need to solve it fast”, then you can’t be concentrate on your job. When time goes by, you will be sweating and feel the stress. And sometime, how you handle the job is important. For example, we received some orders or directions from our boss or supervisor which is not clear. We have to ask for the clarification instead of starting the job blindly. This is common when we are a technical staff and our boss is a management staff. Terms used by management staffs usually are different from terms used by technical staffs. As a technical staff, we have to get the correct definition from our boss. When we know very well what should be delivered, then there won’t be any stress. You won’t generate the stress.

I fix my lunch time. Everyday I go out for lunch at the exact time. I will forget about my work temporary and fully enjoying my lunch time very much, no matter what I did during the working hour. I may say, this is also a kind of concentration, I concentrate on my lunch. In other words, balance between work and privacy is important. I am also saying that I never bring the job back to my home. I seldom talk about my work with my wife, unless it is a happy event happened during working hour. When I am at home, I will be doing my own job( on music ). This making me no time to think about my work at office. I am the kind of person, if you give me 25 hours a day I will still telling you that it is not enough for me. I have no time to feel boring. Where is the stress? It is not generated at all by my working style or my thinking.

If you think you are facing too much of stress, please think deeply and ask yourself, where does the stress come from. You may practise what I do everyday. It is just a habit of thinking. It is not difficult to practise it. The most difficult part in our job probably is when we work together with somebody who does not know very well their own job function. Some staffs may not know what should they do and could not be taking their own responsibility. They may affect us. Stress may be generated from there. If everybody knows very well what should they do, there should not be any stress.

If you are given a responsibility to complete a job within a time frame, and if you can’t complete it before the due date, as I said, stress won’t be generated with my mentioned working style. There is another possibility that you totally can’t proceed with the job. I believe you have to report it to your boss or supervisor, asking for help. Stress is still won’t be generated. If the job is totally owned by you ( you are the boss ), then you are generating the stress for yourself. By adjusting your mind, stress is also won’t be generated. Just like my music business. I own Double Melodies. I try to get more traffic to my website. I keep learning. Where is the stress? I won’t generate the stress on myself because I know what should I do for the moment and I keep trying.

Does the game or competition gives us the stress? Allow me to tell you my story. I play bowling every week with my wife. I joint some bowling tournaments. When I come to the tournament, I won’t tell myself “I have to win”. Everytime I will keep reminding myself to hold the ball firmly, to swing the ball consistently and keep staring at the target( the arrow ) even after ball releasing. If I follow all the rules which I set for myself, I usually play well. The most important thing is, I may play well without stress and pressure. You will have the stress if you keep thinking that everybody is hoping you to play well. You will have the pressure if you think everybody is looking at you. I believe, for all kinds of games and competition, they are part of psychology game. If you are not prepared mentally, you will lose the game. What does it means by “prepared mentally”? It is just what you think and what you can’t think before the game.       

Does the traffic jam gives us the stress? If we start our car engine early( spare some time for the traffic jam ), we have done our best. When we are caught in the jam, we can’t do anything to improve the traffic flow. If you think you have the stress, then the stress is generated by your own mind, not by the traffic jam. If you say, the stress is generated by the jam, how come I don’t have the stress? I enjoy driving in the jam. There are a lot of beautiful scene you may enjoy at the jam. If you worry that you will be late, then you are not live at the moment. You are at the future. You can’t do anything on your future because you cannot control your future. What you can control is the current moment. Please come back to the current moment and enjoy the current moment, which is the jam. And concentrate on your driving.

When you keep guessing on what will be happened, stress will be generated. Guessing on what will be happened is a harmful thinking habit. This is refer to what you can’t change and control. This is different from your planning. If we really live at the moment, enjoy the moment, stress won’t be generated. So, have I prove that stress is generated by your own mind?

No matter what you are doing, please enjoy the process. Don’t keep thinking of the destination. We may think of the destination only when we are doing our planning. And the best way to live without stress is to avoid generating the stress, not to keep thinking on how to handle the stress after it is already exists.