Daily stress preparation truly makes the difference between success and failure in any venture. If you work in an office or in your home office the stress is the same but needs to be fleshed out accordingly. If we fail to take care of ourselves by not getting the needed recovery and recharging time, the ability to help others would run thin and potentially threaten healthy adaptation to some sense of normalcy. Even a short break produces tremendous results.
Be Prepared!
The Scouts’ motto “Be prepared” is an excellent motto for all of us and all of life. It is also essential for anyone interested in life mastery. Many people simply bounce through life like bumper cars, never knowing when or where they are going to get hit. They spend all their time just trying to make it around the track successfully. When the really big collisions of life arrive, they are caught totally unaware and unprepared, often with disastrous results.
None of us can predict all the storms of life that will come our way. But we can prepare ourselves for life so that gravity, however big or small, will elicit from us a consistent response of excellence and elite performance. We can weather the storm successfully without either losing our cool or squandering our energy reserves.
Some people ask whether it is really possible to prepare for gravity or crises. “Crises are unpredictable,” they say. Yes, but they are also inevitable, as with stress/gravity. If we know this reality, we can prepare for any storm in advance by developing a better relationship to stress now. Even if we do not know the specific form our storm might take, we will be better prepared.
The essence of performing well under pressure is integrating stress through practice so that our entire relationship with stress and the inevitable life storms is permanently shifted. In one sense, when we practice at this, everything becomes much less of a “big deal,” and we are able to take more things in our stride.
Emergency room personnel work in a high-stress environment where they deal with crisis situations all the time. While they never know in advance what emergencies they will face, their education and training have prepared them to deal with what comes along, whether it’s a heart attack, a gunshot wound, an epileptic seizure, or a diabetic coma. The secret is preparation, which implies knowledge, training, and practice.
Handling stress effectively involves two critical umbrella components: the ability to see stress positively (as a challenge critical to success) rather than as something negative (as a threat), and an ability to create regular “MESP alignment.” This is an acronym I use for the four components that make up each individual: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. Alignment in this context means achieving harmony or congruence in these four areas. It means you feel in synch with yourself. All that I have shared in my new book Performance Under Pressure will continue to share are tools, tips, suggestions, information, and coaching toward these two goals. Without both of these aspects actively in place, stress will likely continue to control you, rather than the other way around. Further, it will be all but impossible to operate at your thrive level, since thriving requires the mastery of stress.
One way is to monitor the daily recovery needs in the office or home office that influence our energy levels and relationship harmony. The more you can know about your own daily recovery needs, the better prepared you will be to handle stress when it comes. Being prepared for stress is an essential criterion for achieving success. Show me a person’s level of commitment to preparation and I will show you that person’s capacity to succeed in whatever he or she sets out to do in the midst of stress.
Prepared people are rarely surprised, because they live in expectancy of what is to come, instead of avoiding a future filled with potential challenges. Preparation takes time, and time is money. Success does not occur in a vacuum, and it doesn’t happen accidentally. Just think of any star performer who worked hard for years to become an “overnight” success. Moses, one of the greatest leaders in the Bible, spent 80 years preparing for his life’s work of leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Being ready for something great to happen personally, relationally, or occupationally also involves the ability to believe that something great can happen. Many people who are desperate for something great to happen in their lives are at the same time convinced that it cannot possibly happen for them. Choose to see everything, including stress, more positively, and prepare for good things to happen. You will soon find good things happening in your life. This will create tremendous momentum and you will find it easier to deal with the stresses that do arise.
Elite performers in all walks of life understand the necessity to train at all costs. I’ve spent years training people for stressful events that may occur by working with them in advance to handle the anticipated stressors. Everyone, from mothers adjusting to broken sleep cycles to teens trying to fit in every day at school, benefits from training and preparation. New mothers can shift their daytime schedules in advance to allow for more rest. Teens can prepare for peer pressure by working with a trained professional to build a healthy self-image and understand the nature of competition from peers. This will produce the confidence to stay true to themselves in spite of the peer pressures surrounding them. World-class athletes and military personnel, as well as others simply working and living their lives, need to understand the power of preparation.
Military fighter pilots spend thousands of hours preparing to fly missions in war-torn areas to protect our country. Without the commitment and the discipline of “real-world simulation training,” these elite individuals would not be able to perform their missions with precision and excellence at the desired safety level in times of real crisis. This is the key to staying calm under pressure when every detail matters.
I have watched pilots go through systems checks every single time they fly, the same way with the same information and the same criteria. To the untrained eye, it looks like a lot of redundancy, but to a trained eye it is the essence of professionalism and prepared excellence.
Why do pilots take so much time preparing before each flight? Because they operate in an environment with zero tolerance for errors: If anyone makes a mistake, someone may die. That is why, to guarantee success, it is absolutely necessary for every detail to be checked. Remember, daily stress preparation truly makes the difference between success and failure in work-life balance. If you work in an office or in your home office the stress is the same but meticulous execution of the day with sufficient breaks will enhance performance and leave some energy in the tank to care for those at home you care about most!
