Page 297 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

282 Just Promoted!

tional well-being. How many items from the following list do you already do?
How many could you do more effectively?
1. Maintain good health habits in relation to eating, resting, and exercising.
People who are worn down, physically weak, or constantly tired are
more susceptible to stressors.
2. Assume a take-charge approach to your life. Be personally responsible
for who you are, how you feel, what you are thinking, and the way you
act. Believe that you can change aspects of yourself that need changing.
3. Each week come up with at least one additional way to build your psy-
chological, emotional, and spiritual strength.
4. Learn to express your feelings. With your spouse or a trusted friend,
open up. Don’t sit on a powder keg of feelings. Stored negative feelings,
old and new, are very unhealthy.
5. Be patient with your own and others’ imperfections. Many high achiev-
ers try to be perfect. It is okay to make mistakes. Perfection and striving
to improve yourself are two very different concepts.
6. Surround yourself with people whom you trust as friends and intimates.
Be open to help and support. Be there for others.

Building Your Personal Resiliency. Here are a few examples of effective cop-
ing responses:
1. Energize with good stress. Take enough risks so you are challenged but
not so many that you are overwhelmed. Set goals just out of reach, but
not out of sight.
2. Balance stressful times with activities to repair and heal.
3. Find new ways to renew energy.
4. Get support from others.
5. Eat well and choose medium or low glycemic index foods.
6. Exercise using aerobic, flexibility, strength building, and conditioning
activities.
7. Regularly use stress reduction techniques such as yoga, meditation, or
breathing exercises.
8. Make sure to take vacations and plan periods of time to rest and renew.
9. Change how you relate to the stressor. Experiment with new behaviors.
10. Change the stressor. Sometimes you can change what is bothering you.
Modify one or more stressful features of your immediate environment.
For example, fix or replace something that is bothering you about your