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Stress management wouldn’t seem like something that would be a part of setting goals, but it may be the difference between you achieving them and not achieving them.

There is positive stress and negative stress. Positive stress adds anticipation and excitement to life, and we all thrive under a certain amount of stress. Deadlines, competitions, encounters, and even our frustrations and grief’s add profoundness and enrichment to our lives.

Our goal isn’t to eliminate stress, but to find out how to manage it and how to apply it to assistance you accomplish your goals. Insufficient stress acts as a depressant and may leave you feeling bored or depressed; on the other hand, excessive stress may leave you feeling all mixed up inside.

What you need to do is discover the optimal level of stress which will individually motivate but not overwhelm each of us.

How Can I Tell What is Optimal Stress for Me?

There is no single level of stress that is optimal for every person. We are all individual creatures with specific requirements. As such, what is distressful to one may be a pleasure to another.

And even when we agree that a specific event is distressing, we are likely to differ in our physiological and psychological responses to it. That’s just human nature.

The person who loves to arbitrate disputes and moves from job site to job site would be stressed in a job that was stable and regular, whereas the person who thrives under stable conditions would very likely be stressed on a job where responsibilities were highly changed.

Also, our individual stress requirements and the amount which we can tolerate before we become troubled modifies with our ages. It has been discovered that most illnesses are connected to unrelieved stress; for example, anxiety disorders, bowel disorders etc.

If you’re experiencing stress symptoms, you have gone beyond your optimal stress level; you need to reduce the stress in your life and/or improve your ability to manage it.

Stress Symptoms include, but are not confined to:

Hair falling out
Anxiety attacks
Headaches
Fatigue
Loss of appetite
Increase of appetite

How Can I Manage Stress Better?

Discovering unrelieved stress and being alert of its consequence on our lives isn’t adequate for reducing its damaging effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management.

However, all require work in order to be effective. Changing the source of stress and/or changing your reaction to it. So you may be questioning how do you do it? Let me show you.

1. Become alert of Your Stressors and Your Emotional and Physical Reactions.

Notice your stress and its beginnings. Don’t disregard it. Don’t gloss over your troubles.

Determine what events stress you out. How much do these events mean to you?

Determine how your body reacts to the stress. Do you become tense or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?

2. Recognize What You Can Change.

Can you change your stressors by avoiding or eliminating them altogether? Can you reduce their intensity over time?

Can you shorten your exposure to stress by taking a break, or leaving the physical premises?

Can you commit the time and energy required to making a change (goal setting, time management techniques, and delayed gratification strategies may be helpful here)?

3. Reduce the Intensity of Your Emotional Reactions to Stress.

The stress reaction is set off by your perception of danger and/or fears, physical danger or emotional danger, and fears of failure etc.

Are you looking at your stressors in enlarged terms and/or taking a challenging situation and making it a disaster?

Are you expecting to please everyone because I’m telling you that you can’t?

Are you overreacting and seeing things as absolutely critical and urgent all the time? Do you find you must always come out the winner in every situation?

Work at taking in more moderate views; try to see the stress as something you can deal with instead of something that overwhelms you.

Try to temper your excess emotions. Put the situation in perspective.

Do not labor on the negative aspects of everything find a positive in them if you can.

Take individual time to evaluate your surroundings clearly.
Take a deep breath when overly stressed and count backwards from 10.

Exercise a little bit or take a walk daily

4. Build Your Physical Reserves.

Eat well-balanced, nutritious meals.
Maintain your ideal weight or appearance.
Avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine, and alcohol.
Mix leisure with work. Take breaks and get away when you can.
Get enough sleep. Be as consistent with your sleep schedule as possible.

5. Maintain Your Emotional Reserves.

Build up some mutually positive friendships/relationships. Follow up on realistic goals which are important to you, rather than goals others have for you that you do not share because they won’t succeed. Expect some frustrations, failures, and regrets and let them go.

Always be kind and gentle with yourself be your own best friend.
Hopefully you’ve recognized just how simple achieving your goals can be if you set your mind to it.

Setting goals properly doesn’t have to be the most challenging thing that you can do because it can be very energizing. If you challenge yourself right and set time aside to set your goals, you can complete them successfully.

You’ve discovered that procrastination is your enemy when you trying to accomplish something in your life, and you have learned that goals can be set for just about every aspect of your life including family, relationships, finances, health/fitness etc.

Why should you waste your time daydreaming and hoping for a better life when you can go and get one right now? You don’t need to know anything other than what you have learned here on your way to a better future.

Get yourself on the right track and start setting your goals today!

This concludes the series of articles on Setting Goals Effectively. You may start from the beginning of these helpful articles at:
“Start Setting Goals and Change Your Life”.

Scott Barker- EzineArticles- Expert Author

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Filed under: Motivation, Self Help, Self-Improvement, Stress Management