(iconic man) There have been millions of pages written about stress. People up to their ears in work, or under the pressure because they have too much on their plate and have been trying to find solutions for years. Everything from massage to therapy promises to remove all the stress that stands between you and perpetual happiness.
But dealing with stress is not going to go well no matter how scientific your method of relief is. Unlike toothaches or a broken ankle, stress is not an affliction that you can pinpoint and cure at a moment's notice. It creeps into your life, usually at an early age, and feeds from your experiences and anxieties like an alien symbiote.
Today, the world is under more pressure than ever. The pressure to perform, to succeed, and to live up to expectations is enormous. Add to that the economic context, and the fact that human interaction has come a long way from what it was 20 years ago, and you’ve got yourself a cocktail of old and new stressful factors that will affect every aspect of your life.
What are the best stress management techniques? How do top CEO’s and execs find a way to stay composed and in control every day?
Well, that is what we are going to talk about right now. And, by the end of this article, you will not only be able to understand and use their methods but you will find out what the biggest secret in the world is with regard stress management techniques.
WHY DO WE NEED STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES?
The answer to this one is quite simple. Because the best way to deal with stress and its aftermath is to tame and contain it. Think of it like any prevention therapy. Stress is almost always related to work, money or relationships and there is no way to get rid of it. Your best bet is to try to manage the way these three factors spill into your everyday life. And that is as hard as balancing three pots of coffee brewing at the same time, over the same fire.
As stress surgery will not be available to you anytime soon, you will need to focus on the things that cause you to lose confidence, become unproductive, and short-tempered. And that is exactly where stress management kicks in, to help you hold back and control the things that have a detrimental effect on your overall performance.
Stress management is a wide array of techniques that aim to keep your stress levels in check, with the sole purpose of improving the way your mind and body function every day. They are mostly recommended when it comes to chronic stress. As you can imagine, unless you are Jason Garrett, the stress that the Dallas Cowboys will fail to win the Superbowl again doesn’t count.
There are many stress management techniques out there, both for self-help or for use by professionals that aim to help you reduce the levels of stress you are facing every day. They all find ways to boost the control you have over your life and help you enrich your existence with positive perspectives and a general sense of well being. And that is not all. Some stress management techniquesconcentrate on an even more personalized form of help. They center around what you like to do and use it to balance out the stressful elements that tend to overwhelm you. Things like finding a hobby, encouraging communication or daily exercise routines, go a long way into helping you deal with everyday pressure.
And believe it or not, some of the most important CEOs in the world use them successfully, to complement and upgrade the way they deal with stress.
WARREN BUFFET
The most successful stock market investor on this side of financial history, Warren Buffet has a lifetime experience of dealing with stress. Not only does he have to deal with the continuous changes that affect any investor when it comes to the stock market, he has also been around for long enough to see numerous game-changing regulations, crashes and emerging new industries.
On a tress level scale, Warren Buffet would be so high that no therapy could prevent him from going all John Wick on his competitors.
But, as all great CEO’s do, the man that runs Berkshire Hathaway, found a way to keep his head in the game and the portfolios of his investors on the rise. He manages to relieve some of the stress by playing the ukulele. Though that is not his only hobby. Buffet, who is worth more than the GDP of Luxembourg, is also keen on golf and bridge.
And I know what you are probably thinking. Warren Buffet is the third richest man in the world, of course, he has time for all that. Well, he surely is rich but he acquired the vast majority of his wealth after he turned 50 and by that time his ukulele game was already strong.
What you need to learn from Warren is that being passionate about the things you do will yield great earnings. And being passionate about your hobby will yield great mental strength, composure and positive living. All will help you on your way to transforming into the best and most iconic version of yourself.
BILL GATES
The man behind Microsoft, and the biggest philanthropist in the world, also uses some pretty interesting stress management techniques. The former CEO of the biggest personal computer software company in the world is very fond of reading. This helps him release stress and doesn’t make him overburdened by his responsibility.
Another thing he does is to log off from the world, for about a week at a time, and writes down the things he feels should be addressed.
Besides, his hobbies Gates credited his friend Buffet for his stress-reducing technique of keeping things simple.
"And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics... it's so amazing that he can do that. It's a special form of genius."
It may sound easy when you are Bill Gates, but the truth is that knowing what problems to face and when to face them could be a massive boost to your efforts of becoming ever better.
Keeping track of the things that are truly important in your development will probably not land you a job as the CEO of Microsoft, but will improve your efficiency and perspective like few things do.
ELON MUSK
Elon Musk should be in a category of his own. This creative entrepreneur does not shy away from stress and instead uses a very different philosophy when it comes to dealing with the pressure of managing so many projects at the same time. Unlike Gates or Buffet, he is the CEO of multiple companies, in as many respective fields. Musk rarely indulges in hobbies and is very careful when managing his time.
The one distinctive feature, that makes him one of the most successful businessmen today, is his ability to use stress rather than look for ways to reduce it. And that is the best-kept secret of stress management techniques. Sometimes negative stress can be a powerful positive tool. Elon Musk believes in harnessing the power and energy that all forms of stress bring with them and using it for motivation.
If you manage to find inspiration in the fears and stressful activities brought about daily, you too can succeed in unlocking your full potential.
"Fear is finite, hope is infinite. We are afraid of failing, but it doesn't stop us from trying."
"People should certainly ignore fear if it's irrational. Even if it's rational and the stake is worth it, it's still worth proceeding."
This kind of reckless yet calculated approach is one of the reasons Musk is one of the most influential personalities today. Treat stress like an investment, and you too can overcome all the obstacles in your path.
JACK DORSEY
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey is not the most eccentric modern-day personality. But that is not by any means something wrong. He may not use the easiest stress management techniques in the world, but it may be one of the most efficient. Work-related stress often has its roots in work volume, and the way you manage to deal with balancing the time you invest and the results you get.
That is exactly what Jack Dorsey does best when it comes to dealing with stress. His strength is the way he organizes his schedule to get the most results out of his time. This kind of ample time management keeps him way ahead of most problems, and always ready to face what comes up along the way. As Dorsey believes, stress mostly comes from having to deal with things that you don’t expect.
If you want to balance out most of the stress in your day, the first and best step you can take is to plan out your day ahead of time. With some practice, you can reach Jack’s level of planning the entire week, with specific days dedicated to specific things.
A good and relentless schedule of work will help you see the bigger picture and make you a more consistent, focused, structured person. And will also provide you with more spare time. There is no field where that will not come in handy.
Follow Jack Dorsey’s philosophy and you can get rid of more than half of the complications you encounter daily, and have enough spare time to read those tweets.
TIM COOK
When it comes to early birds no one is more early than Tim Cook. And that is not because the Apple CEO got into computer tech almost from the beginning. No. Tim Cook is an early bird because he reportedly gets up before 4 am every morning.
One of his sole hobbies is fitness and he makes full use of that every day. But that is not what makes him so interesting when it comes to stress management techniques. The way he best deals with stress has more to do with his business philosophy. Something that should be expected from a man that also sits on the Board of Directors of Nike inc. Tim Cook tackles stress by not factoring it in the surrounding noise that comes with every problem.
It sounds pretty hard. I mean, how can you not take into account the multitude of opinions, critics and feedback that accompany every difficult business decision. Well, you just have to be confident in your solutions, answers, and judgments. As an iconic man, you need to learn from Tim Cook that concentrating on the essential behind every decision is one of the fastest ways you can avoid stressful situations.
You can use these stress management techniques to lead a happier, healthier life. No matter which one of them seems more to your liking, know that taming and containing stress will help you be more productive more confident, more balanced, and more successful.
