How to Perform Your Best, Even in a Stressful Season
By Leanne Crain
What a busy time of year this is! On top of the regular day-to-day things in life, we add in the holiday season, a challenging economy, and around here - a dose of snow to slow you down! It's also the time of year where many companies and organizations have their year end, ramp up for a big sales season over the holidays, plan for the year ahead, set new goals, and get ready for any holiday vacations that are upcoming. While it's easy to say "leave home and home and work at work", during hectic times like these, those lines can become more blurred and harder to follow.
Your time for you becomes scarce, your stress levels rise, and you demand more out of yourself. How does this affect your ability to lead? How does it affect who you are at home? Does the mere mention of holiday season cause those muscles in your neck and shoulders to knot up? Let me tell you a secret - you are not alone!
This time of year is particularly prone to increasing stress levels. While stress in itself is not a bad thing, too much stress can cause your motivation to fizzle away. In order to stay the best performing leader that you can be, you need to focus on keeping yourself in your peak stress zone. What is a peak stress zone? It's that little area where you have just the right amount of stress to keep you motivated, and performing at your best capacity. Everyone has a different zone, but when you're in it, you'll usually know you are there. As a leader, it's important that we work hard to keep ourselves in that zone, so that we can give our best selves to those we deal with everyday - professionally and personally.
The trick for this time of year is, of course, veering away from the burnout area. It's so easy to forget to take time for ourselves. We continually push the envelope of what we can handle; hoping that it will all calm down once this season is over. What we as leaders need to realize, is that we are not doing anyone any favours with this. When you are not in your peak stress zone, you cannot perform to your best ability, and thus, you merely "get by". As hard as it sounds to do this, you must find time to take a break, relax, and give you mind a rest from those stressful things.
Hopefully, you already have ways that you have found to cope, and methods that you use to rejuvenate yourself. The best activities are those that require your total focus. For instance, my ways of choice are yoga and learning to skate. Sure, it's an unlikely combination, but I found it is what works best for me. Both of those activities require my full attention, and don't allow me to think about anything else. If my mind wanders while I am in the middle of one of these activities, I quickly get snapped back to concentration or I will lose my balance. If you have yet to find your activity, let me give you some ideas.
1. Probably the easiest of all - go outside for a few minutes and get some fresh air. Ideally, plan it at a time when there is a bit of sun out. Leave your blackberry behind, and go for a brisk walk. Force yourself to clear your mind.
2. Pick up a good book. Spend 30 minutes every day reading a book you really enjoy.
3. Jogging - I have seen the die hard joggers out even in snow!
4. Other exercises or sports - the list is long here, so I will generalize - find the sport or exercise that requires your full attention, and that you really enjoy, and do it!
5. Artistic endeavors. Do you enjoy scrapbooking? Crafts? Sewing? Painting?
6. Do something good for others. This is a great time of year to give a little bit of your time to others in need.
7. Write in your journal.
8. Cook! Take a cooking class, or just commit yourself to whipping up dozens of holiday goodies to share with friends.
Only you can decide what works best for you. The important thing is finding that task that takes your full concentration, and lets your mind have a break from the multitude of demands from your personal and professional life. By taking time to do this, you will be able to perform better, and let your authentic self shine through at work and home. Remember, in order to lead others, you must first lead yourself.
For more ideas on leadership and team work, please contact Gary Gzik at ggzik@bizxcel.com
Leanne Crain is a Marketing Assistant for BizXcel. Her background is marketing and tourism, and she has over 12 years experience in the sales and marketing field.
