What Stresses You

Scenario: "Dude, I'm working way too many hours. I feel so stressed. Boo!" You'd think working 985094820 hours would stress you. That's not it.

Ask-you-self: How would you define your work?

• a) Suck-ass
• b) Kick-ass

The former causes mucho (bad) stress. The latter makes you feel pretty frickin' excited about your work. If you're stressin' on the job, use that as a sign: "I'll seek opportunities where I'll kick some shiny-@^^% ass."

Hours = Schmouthers

Take two folks:

• a) Bobby B. who works 100 hours. b) Chrissy C. who works 100 hours

Descriptions of those two:

1. Bobby works as an analyst. He hates his job. He feels resentful of everybody. He thinks his clients are out to destroy his morale.
2. Chrissy C. works as an analyst. She loves her job. She's set a humongously big goal to create record results for her clients. She loves 'em.

Unsurprisingly:

• Bobby feels great stress. His productivity drains like a mofo.
• Chrissy feels super joy. Her productivity boosts like a mofo.

Says The Study...

Alabama Professor Dan Ganster's research on how stress harmed work players explained:

The more that individuals had been exposed to chronic uncontrollable demands in their occupation, the less vigorous were their cardiovascular arousal and sympathetic nervous system responses to each of the challenge tasks Chronically stressed workers took more time to recover to baseline levels.

"What if my work just really sucks @^^%?!"

Two options:

1. Redefine your work.

   "I'm working for a bad client." No! You're working to build your kick-ass skills for your promising future.

2. Seek new work.

   Sure, a contract might obligate you to finish some job. If so, fulfill it; then, steer clear of that similar experience in future work. And if some pent-up dictator is controlling what-you-can-and-cannot-do, tell that sucka:

   "Look, Skippy. You can waste my talents on those tasks that destroys my morale, and thus my productivity. Or, you can place me where I'll absolutely rock for the company."

Seek meaningful work.

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