The question for today was are you stressed and I figured that was the perfect low stress post for today. So am I stressed? Nope! I am proud to say that i have not been stressed all year (yeah I know we are only five days in so big whoop) and to be honest I have to say I am generally a pretty low stress person. I mean I get stressed about the usual things like impending deadlines and the occasional crisis, but in general i keep it pretty stress free.
What many may not know though is that this does not come easily to me because I can be quite the anxious person. I come off as just being naturally laid back, but trust me it took a lot of time and energy to learn to just chill the fuck out. And seeing as I have learned the way I think it would only be fitting for me to share some of what I have come to find helpful. So here we go:
1. Understanding what I can control- it seems pretty simple but trust me it is much harder than it looks. I mean we all seem to forget how much of our lives are left up to chance and luck. Think about times when you have done everything perfect and still had it turn out to be an epic fail, or better yet the times you BSed your way through something and had everything turn out fabulously. See it’s all chance and once you learn that there is only so much that you can do you will learn to eliminate stress. You can only do so much and then the rest is out of you hands.
2. Don’t work hard, work smart- so many times we find ourselves doing shit that we really don’t need to do because we feel that it makes us better at whatever it is we are doing and you know what it doesn’t. It just makes you a bit of a dumbass for not learning how to do less work and have the same result. Trust me here almost no one (there are a few psycho’s out there) cares how you got to the end result, they just care that you got there. So why not take the path of least resistance?
Here is an example: I worked with this guy once and he had this stack of journal articles that he had to read for class and he was super stressed about how he was going to get through them. So being the smart slacker I am I shared with him a little secret i learned in the first week of college. Read the abstract, intro, and conclusion (also discussion if you really want to look good) and you will get everything you need. He came in the next week and was amazed at how well it worked. See that is working smart, he got all the info in less time and with less stress.
As one of my favorite quotes says :
“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.”
3. Number 1 is overrated- hey I have been the best before and I have been the worst and guess what the effects of both wear off after like a week. We get so obsessed with perfection that we forget how overrated being perfect is. I mean I get that in America “we’re number 1″ is considered a rule to live by, but is it really that big a deal if you come in second? No! Stop trying to be the best and just be yourself people. Trust me you will have a much better life if you do.
Seriously have you ever taken a hard look at the people who are the all-stars, the straight A students? They look like shit because they are so exhausted from trying to be perfect and do everything right that it shows all over their faces. Ask yourself do you really want to be them? I mean don’t just not try, but don’t get so obsessed with doing everything right that it kills you.
Chill the fuck out!
4. When in doubt sit on your ass- I will not lie I feel really sad for people who don’t know the joy of just sitting on their ass and doing nothing. It’s exhilarating to sit and watch tv or a movie, read a book, or even better yet just sleep. And besides do you have any idea what happens to the people who don’t learn to sit back and relax? They have heart attacks and die! If you had any idea what stress did to you both internally and externally you would run to go home and take a nap.
Remember…
“Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is the freedom to do anything.”
5. Laugh!- Learn to laugh when you make a mistake. Not only does it help relieve stress, but it also just makes you feel lighter and people like being around folks that don’t take themselves so seriously. Plus nothing is funnier than laughing at the barrage of stupid mistakes you make.
And that is all I got people…oh and so you know as I wrote this post on my cell the app froze and so i moved to my comp only to find nothing had saved. Did I stress? Nope, I took a deep breath and rewrote the damn thing. And guess what…it came out much better the second time around. So anywho here are some rather fitting pics for my pic a day (same pic with different effects):
Now off for some chocolate covered pretzels and TV.
Cheers ;0)
