Stress Tip No. 5 : Every day has a headline ‘story’
“Everyday has a headline story”, is something used in reference to traditional newspapers, and infers that no matter how much or little news happens in a day, there will always be something that is put in the biggest font at the top of the page. In stress terms this is another way of saying it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you will never be able to clear down everything. You just can’t do it, particularly in a corporate environment. If you managed to clear down the things that are genuinely ultra important, then other things will have their visibility raised, and then you get chased for those. That’s not to say that you don’t work your very best and you try and do good quality work, doing that will make a difference 1, but know from a pure stress management point of view, that you will never be able to clear all the decks, there will always be something that is the most important thing that day. I’m explaining this badly, so let me relate it to my own way of working. I have found a level I know that if I deliver at, then no one can look at my day, and not think I have not busted a gut. but there is a difference between busting a gut while doing your best versus putting yourself in a hospital or giving yourself Burnout 2, this is a level I can keep running at indefinitely with a bit “left in the tank”, I use that for genuine “Headline” tasks, but its not for daily use, it would kill me. As I’ve mentioned on other posts if you’re running at 100% all the time, genuinely 100%, Then you will not have any surge left in you should your work have a genuine crisis. So hold on to that as a stress management marker. Hold on to it, realise that not everything that is claimed as important, actually needs you to stop the press!!. ..Cough.. So this post is written with a certain target audience in mind, and that is normal corporate people that will work to a normal retirement age, However there is a sub set of people who it does not apply to, and that is the high burn jobs: Fighter pilots, Investment brokers, Surgeons etc. etc. . Such people have a far shorter working life and as such they are paid a lot more to make up for it, If you have a manager that is trying to get this level of performance out of you, then you should be paid at the performance level you are giving, as you are genuinely burning your self faster than you should.