Use Gratitude to Reduce Stress

What a great time I had on Monday with the staff from three Academies on their joint Inset Day. I have already delivered my talk to the sixth form of each Academy and on the back of this was asked to run a two-hour session for the support staff across all three Academies. The 2-hour Mental Resilience session went really well and the feedback was fabulous.

The following day I was in Sheffield coaching an MD of a local company and this was such fun and very effective. On Thursday I spoke at the Association for Project Managers meeting at the Holiday Inn in Sandiacre Nottingham. This was so enjoyable, with great questions at the end, lovely positive feedback and follow up requests.

A great finish to a great week

Then the week finished off with a trip to Leeds to enjoy a lunch with a managing partner of a firm of solicitors. This lunch was arranged on the back of the Masterclass I ran for the company a couple of weeks ago, which went very well. We had a great lunch at a top Argentinian steak house in Leeds which was wonderful as was the company of the managing partner. We spoke about more work to come in the very near future.

The conversation was so good and the food was excellent. This finish to the week made me realise that all the work I am putting into this business is paying off. This has been a very productive and enjoyable week. I have to pinch myself sometimes to think that three short years ago, I was decorating on £80 a day and I am now leading this extraordinary life.

Building a business is tough

Building a business is not easy and there are many ups and downs. When we are hit with bad news – it’s not the bad news that is important, but how we react to it. I continue to have bad news hitting me on a daily basis – this is normal when building a business! The key to moving forward and staying positive, is to make sure you don’t dwell on the negatives.

What you focus on is how you feel. If you focus on all the negative things in your life you will feel negative, low on energy and down. If you focus on all the positive things in your life you will feel positive, have high energy and you will feel better. You can choose what you focus on, and a technique I use all the time is the re-frame technique.

You must bounce back quickly

The longer you dwell on the negative the quicker you will lose energy and the worse you will feel. Our job is to see how quickly we can bounce back. If there is something you can do about this negative situation, then do it. It may be to make a phone call, have a meeting or send an email. But once you have done everything you can – don’t think about it anymore!

If you continue to focus on the negative then the increase in stress will result in physical, emotional, and psychological damage. Stress starts in your mind, but manifests in your body. Stress damages your body and is something that needs to be taken very seriously. This is something I work on in my Masterclasses and talks.

Thoughts for the week.

1. How do you respond when something negative enters your day? Do you spend too much time worrying about it?
2. What you focus in is what you get. If you focus on good things you will feel better.
3. When something negative enters your day, I suggest listing off everything you can think of that you are grateful for in your life. Do this for 30 seconds and observe how much better you feel.
4. If you mind wanders back to the negative thing, make a conscious effort to re-frame again.

Well that’s it for this week. Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to sharing more with you next weekend.

Warmest regards

John

Off the Wall – How to Develop World Class Mental Resilience available here
https://www.jdmindcoach.com/product/off-the-wall-how-to-develop-world-class-mental-resilience/ (Special blog subscriber offer. Put in code 10POUND when prompted to receive a signed copy for £10 including postage and packing)