Make Stress Work for You
rkforyou.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”225″ />There comes a point within everyone’s working life where stress has a big impact on your overall health and stress can be triggered by something as meaningless as your snapping your favourite pencil if it is the final straw in a long line of things to go wrong. Your
colleagues around you might become concerned if you are looking fraught and tired and your sense of irritability is steadily increasing. What you have to remember is that what becomes one person’s stressor is often another person’s source of inspiration or stress reliever. Everyone handles work stress differently.
There is good and bad stress of course but bad stress or at least your reaction to any situation can be dangerous if you feel stressed consistently in the long term. Stress can be a life saver but it can also take lives too so it is learning how to control stress that is the most important aspect.
You may have heard of the fight or flight reaction? Your pituitary gland signals danger which releases ACTH hormones and signals your adrenal glands to release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol which are known as the stress hormones. These hormones are there to protect you and to speed up your reaction to any dangers and they can boost your endurance, agility and strength. In the natural world, the fight or flight reaction serves to protect you from the dangers that lurk around you but in the modern society where you go to work each day and instead of battling untold dangers to get food, you battle sometimes unrealistic objectives so that you achieve monetary gain.
Learning to let go of stress and to adopt a more positive attitude towards stressful situations enable you to manage your fight or flight response and in turn this limits any bad reaction as regards your health. You have to understand that stress really begins all inside your head; this makes it no less dangerous of course because without a way of gaining control over it, your stress hormones will be released. So how you face stress and react to it can make a huge difference.
For example, if you are about to face an interview for a promotion within your real estate office, it would be likely that you are nervous. If you find interview situations difficult, you may feel actual physical side effects. Headache and nauseous for example. You may have a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, a fluttering nervous sensation which is your fight or flight reaction. Of course, even though you know that you are not going to be injured in any way during your interview, you still dread the interview with such strong emotion that your body emits the same hormones because you are worried as to the outcome.
Then assuming that you get your promotion, you may find that you have to face a lot more daily stresses which can be difficult especially in the early stages of your new career. Having to manage others, especially those former colleagues who are friends can be difficult. Having to deal with awkward or dissatisfied clients who are bent on complaining because the house sale fell through may suddenly fall at your feet to pacify the situation. Extra responsibility and expectation can have your stress levels consistently elevated to the point where you may seem as if you thrive under pressure.
You have to reach your targets so you work harder, longer and dedicate your life to your job, you dread failure to the point that you can’t switch off at night and your sleep is filled with problems or daily concerns, and with a lack of sleep becomes irritability and a lack of focus.
You can see quite clearly that stress must be controlled within the work place if you are going to succeed in your chosen career and to stay healthy. As a real estate agent or manager, it’s vital that you learn to react in a positive way to certain stressors and know how to switch off any negative reactions and this way you will be able to succeed within your role in a much more efficient way. The next time you feel stressed, seriously consider why. Do you have too much to do? Are your time management skills sufficient? Are you just having one of those days and things will seem much better the next day? Try to adopt a positive approach and don’t just ignore stress, deal with it head on because then it will have little control over you.