Managing the boiler

Life can be hard, life can be unfair and life can be difficult. When it is we tend to feel stressed. Some stress is good. Without pressure and stress we have no reason to perform at anything more than a mediocre level, however when stress reaches an unhealthy level it can be one of the most disabling factors in bringing our lives to where we want them to be. Stress makes it hard to sleep and stress is distracting. When life is hard we need to be able to perform to the best of our ability and being overstressed will keep us from being able to do just that.

In the old days factories used to run on steam power, they would have a large boiler in the basement sending hot water vapor under pressure to turn the cogs and pistons that allowed production to happen. Everything was well and good as long as the boiler was kept at the right pressure. If it got to low there was not enough power to run the machines but too much and the boiler exploded shutting down the plant and destroying the machines. This is what stress is like in our lives and we need to learn how to manage the pressure.

Do what you can: Each of us has a certain set of resources, skills, money and time that we can devote to any problem we have. We need to figure out the best way to utilize those resources and then do it. When stress is mounting it is important to know that we have done all we can in order to meet our goals and our needs.

Don't dwell: When we are feeling the stress beginning to mount it is easy to start thinking about what we are going to do to solve it every waking moment. This is fine until you have plan, once you do putting your mind on the problem every single moment just reminds you that it exists. We need to be able to trust that the plan we have in place is worthwhile and concentrate on making it happen when it needs our attention. The rest of the time we need to go on with our lives.

Stick with it: When we are in a stress full situation we want it to over and we want it to be over quickly. That really only happens in movies and car crashes. Most of the situations in our life take time to change. We need to let things play out, if we keep trading one plan for another we will stay in the situation because we never see a solution through. If money is tight we need to work get paid and build our selves a budget. If we have a big contract to attend to at work we have to do the job, crunch the numbers and make the presentation. No matter what we have to stick with the course of action that will produce the results we want.

Focus on the now: When stress starts to build past the useful point it stats a chain reaction. We begin to see all ways things might go bad, the pitfalls and the situations that may result from failure. These are problems that may or may not materialize energy we waste on them now is energy we do not have to fix the current problem. What will happen will happen in its time and we can be ready for that if we put today's trouble to bed first. Focus on what is happening now not what may happen if things get worse. If you must have a contingency plan make it, wright it down and shove it in an envelope. Label it open in case of [[enter situation name here]] and file it away. If the situation arises go to your file pull out your plan and put it in motion. Once you have the plan stop dwelling on the possibility and get to work on the current situation.

Editing project: Create a network of support