Page 296 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Creating Your New Life Integration 281

events, and responsibilities in your life, are important when managing stres-
sors. Here are some suggestions:
1. Take personal responsibility for your pace of life and for major life
changes. Do not blame circumstances or other people.
2. Be aware of your comfort zone and your minimal, optimal, and maxi-
mum levels of stimulation. Know your low and high limits.
3. Continually work to attain a good fit between your needs, your work
challenges, and your home environment. Try to reduce the gaps and
discrepancies between what you want to do, need to do, and have
to do.
4. Try to predict the effects of major life changes, including job changes.
Remember that transitions are often stressful.
5. If you can, avoid clustering too many major life changes within a short
period of time. Too many changes overload and reduce your ability to
cope effectively.
6. Engineer your time and effort. Provide yourself enough time to regroup
after big events.
7. Do not let emotional issues go unresolved for long periods of time.
Therapists call unresolved issues “unfinished business.” Important unre-
solved issues have a gnawing, debilitating effect on us.
8. Be clear about what is important to you and what takes highest priority
in your life. Take time for introspection. Strive for consistency between
your values and your actions.
9. Choose the tasks and challenges that are most important to you. There
will be more than enough—you don’t need to handle those that have lit-
tle or no meaning. Learn to say no to the things you “should” do that
you don’t really want to do.
10. Work on improving your stress awareness through introspective and
reflective activities (such as Your Personal Stress Inventory), discussions
with people you trust, spiritual or religious activity, and seminars and
workshops on personal development.

Managing Your Stress Filter. Try as we might to reduce our stressors, the
unpredictable nature of life and the charged pace of our world force us into
trying situations. You can sometimes reduce their harmful effects by devel-
oping a good stress filter. A personal stress filter consists of the qualities that
reduce the negative effects of stressors on your physical, mental, and emo-