If you’re a project manager, you should be familiar with stress at work. On any given day you may deal with project related stress, organizational stress, and various kinds of personal stress1.
Right now we’re all in a period of global stress. While the current financial gyrations may not directly impact you or your company (and I truly hope that they will not), it is good to be prepared by making sure that your personal stress-management practices are solidly in place.
I find guidance in many sources. The following article was originally published in the 1930s by the New Thought teacher Emmet Fox. While there are some Christian references, the items transcend religion and can be applied equally well whatever your personal beliefs. If you enjoy the following list, you might also like Power through constructive thinking, a collection of short works like this by Emmet Fox.
Value to you:
Basic practices you can use to remain centered and calm when you have stress at work.
FIFTEEN POINTS by Emmet Fox2
- I always look for the best in each person, situation and thing.
- I resolutely turn my back on the past, good or bad, and live only in the present and future.
- I forgive everybody without exception, no matter what they3 may have done; and I then forgive MYSELF wholeheartedly.
- I regard my job as sacred and do my day’s work to the best of my ability (whether I like it or not).
- I take every means to demonstrate a healthy body and harmonious surroundings for myself.
- I endeavor to make my life of as much service to others as possible, without interfering or fussing.
- I take every opportunity wisely to spread the knowledge of truth to others.
- I rigidly refrain from personal criticism, and neither speak nor listen to gossip.
- I devote at least a quarter of an hour a day to prayer and meditation.
- I read at least seven verses of the bible (or another encouraging work)4 everyday.
- I specifically claim spiritual understanding of myself every day.
- I train myself to give the first thought on waking to God.
- I speak the Word for the whole world every day, say at noon.
- I PRACTICE, the Golden Rule instead of merely admiring it. He said, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” The important point about the Golden Rule is that I am to practice it whether the other fellow does so or not.
- Above all, I understand that whatever I see is but a picture which can be changed for the better by Scientific Prayer.
If you want to demonstrate5 ask yourself once a week how far you are observing these points in your life. -Emmet Fox
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- Also known as exhaustion or burnout. When was the last time you took a real vacation? [↩]
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great post.