Stress Management Strategy - An Action Plan

It is true that stress is the leading factor of mortality among humans today. Many people die much earlier mainly because of heart problems which start, progress and end with stress. In spite of longevity making the average human being able to live to around 80 years of age, you will find many people "signing out" much earlier.

In order to avoid such situations, you will need to have an active stress management strategy which will eliminate stress both form your personal life as well as from work. The following plan of action would be one suggestion to put things in the right perspective:

1. Stress Management Strategy #1 - Identification. You will first of all have to know what you are fighting against. If you find yourself stressed, chances are that you would not be able to immediately pinpoint what makes you feel the way you are. The first step in a healthy stress management strategy is to identify the problem. It is like, lets have a diagnosis first and then we can work out the cure.

2. Stress Management Strategy #2 - Accept the points you can never have control over and eliminate them from your mind. It is a good idea to list all the factors that you can control and then work out a plan to do so.

3. Stress Management Strategy #3 - Recognize the fact that grievances need and should be aired. If there is no healthy system in the office where the grievances can be aired, then the levels of frustration can put high pressure on the stress factors at work. Stress will be directly proportional to the ability of the worker/ employee to discuss his professional and personal problems; unless there is someone who takes care of this aspect, no stress buster program will work.

4. Stress Management Strategy #4 - Have a proper feedback system. Your employees should know what needs to be improved, i.e. what they are lacking, and what they are great at. Both the aspects need proper presentation as both can have the most debilitating effects. The employee who does not know how his/ her work is evaluated can develop high levels of stress, imagining things and drawing their own conclusions.

5. Stress Management Strategy #5 - Recognize the overall requirement to have a total balance between home and office. Employees who focus solely on work would gradually develop a high aversion towards this job whereby the quality of work will suffer greatly.