The response to the last blog post entitled “It’s All About the View” was varied and interesting. The message dealt with the value of stepping out on the ‘balcony’ in order to remove ourselves from a myopic view of any situation and enable us to see our situation from a higher and broader plane. Whereas many saw and appreciated the reminder to do this, some expressed feeling so overwhelmed by the sum total of their circumstances that they questioned their ability to even find that balcony.
Okay. I get it and this reminded me of some learning that I experienced many years ago that has served me very well. In sharing it with you as a reader I expect it will make sense to you as well. Just bear with me here. I really haven’t lost it.
Envision that within our bodies we have the likes of a bank savings account. This account is special for it holds only stress related credits. And 
when our lives are going along with relative ease and with manageable activities, we continue to build up credits on this account. That is … until … WHAM!
The wham can be any number of things including the likes of …
- Interviewing for a new position
- Moving to a new residence
- Having turmoil with another person on your work team or within your department
- Awaiting your work review with positive anticipation
- Challenges at home in terms of relationships
- Dealing with the illness of someone close to you
Of course there could be many more yet what is important to realize is when any one of these things take place, we withdraw credits we have amassed from our special ‘stress’ account. That, by itself, is just fine as this is how it’s supposed to work. So what’s the problem?
It’s only a problem when we find ourselves dealing with too many stress-related issues at the same time. When this occurs it leads us to make decisions and take actions that are not always in our best interest. When this occurs, we have a good chance to create bigger problems and thus, create a vicious cycle of stress-related actions. When we are over-taxed in this manner our distorted logic can lead us to handle the types of things mentioned above in ways that bring negative results and even compound the situations. Look at them again. I’m sure you can quickly 
derive what the ‘wrong way’ to respond to these situation would be.
The solution is rather simple. Recognize that you have too many things going on that are sapping your account of stress credits. Recognize that depleting this account will lead you to take actions that, in the end, might not serve you well at all. Recognize that you can find a way to minimize the credit withdrawals taking place at the same time. Often times it’s just a matter of us deciding to prioritize our ‘list’. Other times we can ask to postpone something to a later date. Regardless of how we do it, what we’ll succeed in doing is enabling ourselves to make it out to our balcony, gain that perspective that often makes things look different, better and manageable and in the overall … avoid the WHAM! Try it … my guess is that you’ll like it!
Mike Dorman
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