These stress hormones can save our lives, but they can also destroy our health in daily life. Imagine getting into your car, slamming down on the gas pedal and holding your foot there for days. What do you think is going to happen to the engine?
The Mayo Clinic tells us that living in a constant state of stress can disrupt the processes in our bodies and increase the risk of numerous health problems like anxiety, depression, headaches, sleep problems, weight gain and more.
But this is not a science lesson; this is about understanding what stress is and how to choose your response to it in your life and work.
Stress, Focus and Success
Have you ever heard the saying “New levels, new devils”?
It reflects the observation that at each new level of success, there are bigger and bigger problems, pressures, challenges and opportunities.
No doubt there are increased levels of spiritual resistance along the path to God’s best for you. But often the greatest source of resistance, and what holds us back, is our own thinking and patterns of behavior.
One success coach explains it this way:
Every human being develops a series of beliefs, values, rules, mental maps, strategies and habitual patterns for navigating life. We learn how to deal with challenges and problems in a certain way to keep ourselves safe.
Our beliefs filter how we see and respond to life; our values influence what we prioritize, and our patterns of behavior often become our first response to something new or different.
When life happens, we make a decision about what it means. These decisions can work for and against us. If we’re David facing Goliath, we draw courage and strategy from a victorious reference. We run confidently into battle and win on our terms.
But if we get rejected or fail and decide it’s because we’re not good enough, we retreat into fear, shut down and become stopped or stuck.
Our decision about what rejection, failure or anything else means can become a limiting belief that negatively influences how we see and respond to daily life and work.
The stress that accompanies any new challenge or opportunity is simply the trigger that brings out what’s inside us.
The good news is that we are not robots. We can recondition ourselves to think differently, take charge and choose a better response.
This doesn’t eliminate problems or stressful situations, but it can dramatically alter the outcomes we experience.
How?
10 Keys to Less Stress, More Success
Here are 10 keys to help:
1. Win the battle in advance.
Every battle is won or lost before it begins.
It’s true in war, and it’s true in life.
Jesus gives us a “heads-up” in John 16:33. He tells us in advance that we’re going face trouble so that we can confidently choose our response and proceed in the knowledge of His victory and in the peace and power that come from His perspective and wisdom.
Jesus’ victory is a spiritual truth that is also very practical, but His promises don’t automatically manifest in daily life. We must consciously choose to believe. Then, we must live a life where our daily choices are evidence of our faith.
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