How to Handle Stress (Without Letting It Run Your Life)
You'd likely automatically think, 'Well, Bill's very poor.' Then you'd feel like an idiot had he been worth $71 in the year 1300. Context changes everything, including how you should feel about your own problems.
Handling stress effectively requires that you remain objective. It’s incredibly efficient to remove yourself from the situation when you’re making a decision, analyzing data, evidence and claims.
Case in point; I tell you, “Bill has a net worth of $71.” You would likely automatically think, “Well, Bill’s very poor.” Then you’d feel like an idiot when I revealed that Bill had a net worth of $71 in the year of 1300. Bill was, in fact, incredibly rich. In dealing with stressful situations, the important thing is to remove yourself from the situation as much as possible. Such objectivity will help you deal better.
99.9% of the Time, Problems Work Themselves Out
Stress doesn’t phase me. There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. Usually, everything will work out well. If it doesn’t, it just doesn’t.
Personally, I carry a tremendous amount of stress. I simply refuse to allow it to affect my decisions. I’m human, and my stomach turns from the weight of it all from time to time. My shoulders get heavy. I get frustrated just like everyone else. Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping when the stress gets out of control.
My remedy? I fight stress for all I’m worth. I combat it by putting a smile on my face. I have fun and I laugh. I do what I have to do, and plow straight through whatever’s standing in my way. 99.9% of the time, the stomach turning, sleep-depriving mess that’s threatening my happiness works itself out. It would’ve been a waste of my life to have let it dragged me down.
Stress doesn't solve anything. It just makes the solving feel worse while you're doing it.
How I Deal With Stress
There are several ways that my stressful situations may play out.
I actively find a resolution.
I outsource the problem.
I accept the loss.
It works itself out, and I was over reacting.
“Fuck, that sucks,” is my typical reaction if I take a hit from the Market. And I move on. Money comes and money goes. I’ll earn my losses back if the Market doesn’t recover it for me. I’ll figure out a solution.
There is No Problem Too Big
The idea of a problem being too big doesn’t stop me. I choose not to go to sleep on an issue. Rather, I act. I do something about it. If I fail to handle it, I eat the consequence. To put it plainly, I just don’t stress. I do what I can, and when that doesn’t work, I accept the outcome.
Even if the worse-case scenario is likely to happen, it’s like driving a car into a wall. There’s nothing I can do. I’m going into the wall. The steering’s out and the brakes aren’t working. That’s that. I’ll figure it out after the car runs into the wall. But I’m not going to stress out.
While I’m waiting for that hypothetical car to hit the wall head-on, I’m not going to press the pause button on my life. I’m going to go have fun with my friends. I’m going to the gym. I’m not going to avoid work because there are issues looming in my life. They work themselves out, or I work them out. They often simply vanish, or someone else fixes them. So be it. Life carries on.
You can't control whether the wall is there. You can only control whether you keep driving toward it.
How Are You Actually Handling Stress?
How do you handle stress? Do you have techniques already established, such as working out or meditation, that ease their side effects?
Sex is an excellent stress reliever for some. I’d say it’s a remedy that’s worth trying even if it isn’t effective as a stress reliever for you.
Try to make a list of the 10 ways you most commonly deal with stress. If this list is shockingly short, and it may be, add to it until you have 10. Now, use them.
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