Donna Hanks gives stress-relief tips in magazine article
An article by Donna Hanks will appear in the July issue of The Barrister, the magazine of the South Dakota Trial Lawyer’s Association. The article encourage readers to “change their minds about stress” because “changing the way you think immediately takes a stressful situation, turns it into a natural part of the job, and releases the burden anchored by stress.”
The entire article is below. Motivational speaker Donna Hanks can help your organization reduce employee stress and increase productivity and efficiency. Contact the Corporate Education Center at (605) 718-2410 or HYPERLINK corped@wdt.edu to learn more.
by Donna Hanks
Stressed? Of course you are. Who isn’t? Does your job cause you stress? If you answered yes, then welcome to 80% of Americans who feel stress on the job. It is not surprising that the majority of you experience job stress. According to a 1999 government report, U.S. workers put in more hours on the job than the labor force of any other industrial nation where the trend has been the opposite.
Job stress has become a serious and costly epidemic for the United States. A 1992 United Nations Report labeled job stress “The 20th Century Disease.” Consider the following statistics:
- 12% of employees call in sick due to job stress.
- An estimated 1 million workers are absent every day due to stress.
- 40% of job turnover is due to stress.
- Absenteeism due to stress cost U.S. industry an estimated $300 billion a year as a result of accidents; absenteeism; employee turnover; diminished productivity; direct medical, legal, and insurance costs; and Workers’ Compensation awards.
- 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.
Research shows, that most of your stress originates in the workplace. Unfortunately, stress knows no boundaries and it does not discriminate. If you are stressed at work, chances are your personal life and family life feel the burden.
While you may not control what you do at work, you do have control of what you think about work. (That sentence is important, read it one more time!) Things are stressful typically because you label them stressful. Changing the way you think immediately takes a stressful situation, turns it into a natural part of the job, and releases the burden anchored by stress. For example, most of you probably have deadlines to meet. Perhaps you have discovery deadlines, stacked court appearances and trial preparation. As the deadline approaches, do you feel your stress level increase? Keep in mind, some stress is actually good for you. It can increase productivity and enhance creativity. What I am referring to is the stress you perpetuate by simply labeling the deadline as stress. If deadlines equal stress, your mind and body will react as such. Deadlines are not stress, they are merely part of the job. Rather than think negatively about the deadline, be thankful for the opportunity and look forward to the reward of accomplishment upon completion.
A simple change in thought is the difference between feeling anxious and irritable to feeling motivated and accomplished. It is that simple. You change your mind every day about the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the people you see. Make a choice now and “change your mind” about how you perceive stress. No longer lend stress credence to diminish your spirit.
Easier said than done, right? Changing your mind is hard. It requires thoughtful, deliberate effort. Here are five strategies that will ease you into the mental transition of “changing your mind”, and propel you to a more gratifying, fulfilling, less stressful life.
Yes, smile. It is easy, it is free, and it is contagious. Smiling influences you in a positive way. It also influences the people around you in a positive way. Mike Lipkin, head of Environics/Lipkin, a Toronto-based motivation company, calls an authentic smile a powerful form of “social currency.” He goes on to say that people who thrive—those who express a high level of personal well-being—share three values. They control their destiny, they have visceral vitality, and they have habitual generosity. A smile is their outward manifestation of an inner sense of well-being. Get started with this mental transition and smile! Smile at your coworkers, clients, and yourself!-
This is easier said than done. My suggestion is to start small. Do not set out to organize your entire life. That is too overwhelming. Organize something that provides you with immediate satisfaction, like your car. Take the time, clean it out, throw away what you do not need and get it organized (including the glove box). You will feel immediate relief and have a proud sense of accomplishment. The relief will manifest to ambition, which will motivate you to organize additional clutter in your life. Your next project should be your desk, that storage area in the attic, then the catch-all garage. Before long, you will be organizing entire rooms! Try it! You won’t be disappointed with the results!
Do you know what causes you stress? If you do, great! If you don’t, spend time thinking about it. Unless you know what causes you stress, it is difficult to “change your mind” about it.
Are you a procrastinator? Do you wait until the last minute to finish projects? Are you perpetually late for work? Take inventory of your habits. Eliminate and change behaviors that produce negative undercurrents that weigh you down. Deliberate effort is crucial here. Habits are hard to break. Determine what is in it for you. If breaking a habit means positive rewards for your professional and personal life, then start setting goals to eliminate bad habits. Write down your goals, set timelines and share your ideas with others. Supporters hold you accountable and encourage positive behavior modifications.
You are a product of your environment. If you are surrounded by negativity, you will be negative. Hence, surround yourself with positive people and positive energy will permeate from you. Think about an onion occupying a lonely corner of the produce drawer. If it sits there too long, everything in the refrigerator starts smelling and tasting like a rotten onion. Negative people are like rotten onions. Be deliberate. Make a choice. Call on people in your life that bring positive, uplifting energy to your environment. Place a bouquet of roses in the middle of the room and the entire room is engulfed with a fresh, sweet aroma. Positive people, like the roses, have an uplifting, inspiring impact on you. Ask yourself, would you rather smell like an onion or a rose?
Stressing over things you don’t have control over is a mindset. My challenge to you is this: make your well-being important enough to you and your family to “change your mind.” Change the way you think, change the way you act, and change your perspective on stress. Your mind, your heart and your spirit will thank you for it!
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