The right amount of stress can be good for you, such as when an impending deadline pushes you to work faster. Too much stress, however, becomes conterproductive because you start to make mistakes, become confused and muddled, or lose concentration.

When you get too stressed, you tend to push yourself even harder, which only increases stress and inefficiency. So, you need to take a moment to stop and think. No matter how much pressure you're under, it'll be more productive to take the time to step back and put things in persepective. Think about what's more important to you and establish priorities. Under stress, you thoughtlessly take up each task as it comes along, without establishing which ones are more or less important to you.

Once you have a clear understanding of your priorities, then use those priorities to guide your next step. You cannot do everything that you want to do all the time, but you can maintain a balance between tasks that are important and enjoyable to you and tasks that must be done regardless. Maintaining this balance is a very important key to controlling stress.

Stress comes from two sources: internal and external. External sources of stress are external events or problems, such as a drastic drop in sales. Whereas, internal sources of stress come from self-inflicted pressure. For example, if you pin all your dreams for the future on one job interview, you are adding pressure to the situation.

To deal with the outside sources of stress, take each problem and decide whether or not there is something you can do. For large problems, such as a family memeber's illness, there is often nothing you can do. For small problems on which you can take action, first identify the problem. You can even give it a name because, you can often battle a problem more succesfully that you've identified by name.

Then brainstorm with family, friends or collegues and develop as many solutions as possible. It doesn't matter if some ideas don't seem feasible; the aim is to generate an exhaustive list of ideas.

Finally, select a solution to your problem, try it out, and evaluate the results. Above all, persist until you feel better.

Here are few more things you can do to relieve stress.

* Always have your goals written down on note cards and carry them with you. Reminding yourself what you are working towards in your future is naturally uplifting and causes your stress level to go down.

* Go out of your office or home and take a short walk. Leaving the environment for even a few minutes will help you release stress.

* Set aside thrity minutes each day for quiet meditation and deep breathing.

All contents Copyright(c)2005 Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.