Dealing with Stress To Succeed

Is Stress Management a Key To Success?

Take It To The Limit

Mike’s Blog 155

Makes me think of the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun – “take it to the limit” but that is just it – life is short and we need to get outside of our comfort zone as much as we can.

Typing this up in the Shadow Factory Virtual Reality office here in Hong Kong bright and early before others have arrived. The normal morning routine of waking up at 5:30am regardless of weekday or weekend. Get the daily writing in first thing (this vlog is part of it).

Do I get tempted to skip a day? Sure, there is that thought that first crosses my mind when my alarm goes off at 5:30am almost every morning. The temptation to say “well, I had a late night last night, its OK to snooze for a bit”, or “its a Sunday morning, I should take a break” (well honestly about one or two Sundays I do sleep in a bit, till like 7am or so!)

But normally the other side of my brain says – no, it is about consistency, it is about a habit. To continually chip away at something, bit by bit, day by day, is what will make real progress. Not that normal college style cramming overnight before an exam. A book I have become a fan of is Slight Edge, which boils down to the point that it is about taking the slightest forward action each day towards our goal.

Every day.

I’ll be honest, in today’s writing session I was taking a bit of a hiccup and almost gonna skip it. The typical writer’s block or the excuse that taking a day off from writing is OK. Steven King says in his book “On Writing” he writes every day- that includes Christmas and New Years Day. It is to keep that flow going.

So as there are days when you are feeling total overwhelm – try to step back and take it bit by bit. Planning out my days the night before has been so helpful, just listing a few of the biggest things I need to get done that day.

And another thing – pushing the limits and getting outside of your comfort zone will get resistance. Your spouse, your friends, your family will tell you to take it easy. They don’t want you to go through some of the hassles you will have to deal with. They love you and care about you, so they want you to relax and enjoy life.

And catching up on some Gary Vee videos the other day, I saw one where he said that the amount of stress you can deal with is directly proportional to the amount of success you can achieve.

Dealing with stress, this is something I am a student of for sure. As you push the limits, you will also deal with more stress. And your body wants to reduce it, to get rid of it. So how do you handle that balance of achieving great things and pushing your limits and dealing with a growing amount of stress?

When I was younger I thought the stress would go away once I got older and achieved more. Unfortunately from what many have told me, the more you work towards achieving more and doing amazing things, the more stress you will have to Face.

So instead of shying away from stress and fear of failure, the more we need to go directly into it.

Another great saying I read is that a leader is able to face fear and continue to act in the face of it. Face your fear, face that stress, face that resistance. And try to remember, that anyone going down the road less traveled will have to also face those same points – not just you.

If you’re reading this far into my blog – thanks! But also remember, if you’re lonely and stressed and overwhelmed – remember the key is to learn how to “digest” it and deal with it. It is no easy feat, I struggle with it daily as well – but I would like to believe most of the greatest people in our time have had these same struggles.

So it’s not about eliminating the fear – it is acting in the face of it. And learning to quiet down that nagging monkey mind in the back of our head telling us this is dangerous or not safe or stressful.

Wish you all the best – and if you have tips on dealing with stress, I would love to hear it – I need to learn how to better deal with the overwhelming stress. I have found accepting the fact there will always be challenges and stress coming at us is the first and most important step. Yet I’d love to eliminate it faster!

Cheers!

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