How to properly manage stress
-Introduction/Context-
It was 2016 when I first decided to start weightlifting. I was 15 years old and a freshman in high school. I then two years later met my at the time trainer and coach, Rolando. He originally came up to me and asked me whether or not I wanted to compete in bodybuilding. As this was a dream/goal of mine I was ecstatic to say yes.
Needless to say though I was completely ignorant to what I was actually agreeing to and how difficult it would be, not only physically but both socially and mentally as well. I hope that in reading this you will learn from my mistakes in dealing with stress instead of allowing history to repeat itself. Even if you don’t plan to start bodybuilding I believe you’ll be able to apply the main points of this reading to most aspects and goals in your life.
-Main Points-
(In order)
- Learn to gradually develop your consistency
- Don’t forget to acknowledge yourself
- Dealing with burnout
-Learning Consistency/Discipline
Consistency and discipline go hand in hand and is the area people struggle in most. Now I’m not trying to be some crazy guru who wants you to religiously make your bed every morning, I don’t either. But I will say as someone who started bodybuilding at a younger age and has been competing for the last 5 years now. There was and is a lot to learn regarding both discipline and consistency alike.
It’s far too easy to lump consistency and discipline together or just outright wave off one or the other. I believe this to be most people’s fatal flaw when going about a task or accepting a new obligation. I say this because the two terms are fundamentally different and need to be individually understood if one is to maximize their potential in whatever it is they may be doing. As “consistency” is in reference to accomplishing a task daily while “discipline” is in reference to doing the things you would rather not be doing. With that said, here are a few strategies I use to ensure I stay consistent and disciplined.
-Develop your discipline-
- Ease yourself into a new routine/ Don’t let responsibility and the requirement of new found discipline be thrust upon you. What I mean by this is if for example you’re starting a new job with a new time obligation requiring you to wake up earlier. Don’t just wait for the job to start to begin your new routine. Incrementally wake up 30 minutes earlier each day until you reach the time you’re supposed to wake up for work.
-Notify yourself-
- An easy way to keep consistent is to set reminders on your phone or what I like to do is to leave sticky notes in places like the dash of my car or on my computer monitor. As these are places I am looking at on a consistent basis. The main point is to not only have one location to go to if you want to see your tasks for the day as if you forgot what you have to do it’s less likely you will go check if you need to do them.
-What isn’t done today makes tomorrow harder
- Don’t prolong the inevitable. You know if you have something that needs to get done so why leave it for later? Just because you don’t feel like it at the time? Your opinion towards the task won’t change so instead of not wanting to do it later just go do it now.
-Don’t forget to acknowledge your accomplishments
Most ambitious people severely undervalue their accomplishments as once you achieve one thing you begin to expect more out of yourself, broadening your realm of possibilities. In other words your standards and expectations of your performance grows with each accomplishment. Making your past achievements grow seemingly more insignificant as time goes on. Although this is an important part of growth and gaining perspective on future and current tasks and events. It can lead to a sort of downward spiral in motivation and your overall morale.
These resulting negative effects of not acknowledging yourself seem insignificant and not really worth being given any real thought for most. But failing to do so will prove detrimental to your overall work ability/quality but more importantly your mental health as a whole. The reasoning for this is we as humans have a tendency to focus on the negative aspects over the positive ones. This is just a form of self preservation, for example if you discover a new ice cream shop in a bad area of your town and the first time you go there you see the shop get robbed. Despite how good the ice cream was you will only think about the fact you were a witness to a robbery and will more than likely not go back again. Or at least for a very long time which ties in to the main point and take-away of this section.
I know this is an extreme example but it can be applied to many aspects of life. For instance in sports your team could have won the league’s championship last year with you scoring the game winning goal. But then if you go on to lose the first 4 games of the next season without getting many shots in, you’d be bound to get discouraged as you would seemingly be performing at what you think is now beneath you. Leading to you inevitably changing your mindset from believing you could win another league title to it no longer being within your realm of reality or possibilities. All because of a slight hiccup which, in the grand scheme of things, had very little to no effect on your life.
-Dealing with burnout
In doing any prolonged tasks/long term obligation you run the risk of discouragement or burning out due to the eventuality of your daily routine becoming monotonous. This is just a common fact of life but is something we all struggle in dealing with. I’m sure everyone has experienced a job or a class that you find unbearable. So you start thinking to yourself how you’ll ever manage to get through the rest of the year. This can also apply to sports for instance the few months leading up to a bodybuilding competition (in my case) or any other sporting event can be nerve racking as you suddenly have to plan out a balance of time between all of your personal and actual obligations. Your “personal” obligations being things such as your goals or hobbies. While your “actual” obligations being things like providing for your family or having to be at work 9-5 every day. Balancing all this can be a daunting task that will over time lead an individual to a kind of metaphorical nearsightedness. Meaning they start to only look to get through the day and what they can do to just get it over with. Acting without any real amount of autonomy causing a sort of halt in mental and actual development.
To help avoid the inevitable rabbit hole that is simply just going through the “motions” of life and to help ensure you maximize your daily potential. I have few key methods or points that I focus and use on when I get discouraged or feeling as though there is no end in sight. The two main ones namely being “looking to the future” and to “consider the significance of the task at hand”.
-Put it in perspective-
- Looking to the future is something that is of course much easier said than done but is a crucial skill in succeeding in anything remotely difficult. When you put the amount of time a task will take into genuine perspective it tends to lose its weight or scariness if you will. As you realize the one or two hours it will take to finish your homework for example is completely minuscule and insignificant compared to the 24 hours in the day. A larger scale example of this could be the 4 years it takes to finish college is nothing in comparison to the 50-60 some odd years you will be alive after you graduate.
-Consider the significance-
- When you start feeling yourself become overwhelmed with a task, consider if it genuinely is worth the quantity of energy you’re pouring into it. Think back on your past achievements both professional and unprofessional and really consider if it is actually as difficult as you initially perceived it to be. Or if it is well within your realm of capability and stress merely clouded your judgment.