Presently there has been an increase in deaths arising from stress related causes in Nigeria. An international organization gave the life expectancy ratio for Nigerians living in Nigeria to ±47 years; also looking at Nigerian dailies you see obituaries of youths with the caption “gone so soon” and wordings of “died after a brief illness” -This is so tragic.
A whole lot of people are having high blood pressure arising from stress related factors.
Stress and pressure is synonymous with leaving in Nigeria. These is seen on a daily basis in our erratic power supply, our road networks which are filled with massive potholes and the enormous hold ups, it is also seen in working environments where workers are being underpaid and being owed arrears of salaries, with the ever present strikes by workers over wage demands. This article will educate you on ways of dealing with pressure and stress of everyday life.
Common Work Pressures
Once you set aside family pressures and the need for relaxation, workload pressure is the number one source of employee stress. Lack of career progress, low pay, conflict with colleagues or poor workplace relationships can also cause a lot of grief, but workload is a big enough topic on its own.
Everyone has more work to do these days. It is a fact of life brought about by a more competitive global business environment. For employees to keep their jobs, they need to be competitive. That means either offering new products, or working smarter to keep costs down and offer customers great service.
So here are the some tips for you when the going gets tough:
• Learn new techniques to deal with your workload, and life’s pressures. By shedding off most of these pressures, much time which would have been wasted will be saved.
• Work out what is actually inside or outside your control. Try to have and maintain a never die attitude towards your resolution to deal with those issues which you earlier believed you could not.
• Always prepare for the worst situation and expect the best out it. Be the best of whoever you are. Do not always struggle to please anybody.
• Learn when to say no and when to say yes. Be consistent so that people know where they stand with you.
• Focus and lock in to one thing at a time. Take jobs in order and plan ahead. You will soon find that instead of doing five things at the same time, or everything at the last minute, you can get them all done at a relaxed pace and still achieve deadlines.
• Find the light at the end of the tunnel. We can more happily accept any situation if we know when the end will be.
• Learn how and when to:
o Talk to people;
o Share your situation; and
o Find out what the possibilities are.
o Then act on them.
• Being bored or under-used is also very stressful so make sure you are doing things that give you pressure.
• Make out time for some hobbies that make you relax for example sport, light reading as well as time for all the other roles in your life.
• Exercise is a great way to relieve pressure; it keeps you in condition; and can be a source of thinking time.
• Laughter is such a great way to relieve pressure, so find more ways to enjoy yourself with the people who make you feel great!
Coping with Pressure at Work
Stress Management Techniques for Dealing with Workplace Pressure
Workplace stress is so intense and damaging; employees need the smartest stress management techniques to be effective under pressure.
Pressure at work is on the increase. Business is booming for services that support stressed workers. Employees can adopt the following methods to handle the pressure they experience at work: The first step is to put things on paper. When people keep their anxieties in their heads, they get overwhelmed. When they make a list of all the factors that cause them pressure at work, they immediately feel that they are gaining some perspective, if not control.
The Number One Stress Management Technique
Employees who know how to manage stress focus on factors within their control. People who struggle to cope with pressure blame others or disempowered themselves by focusing on the factors that are outside of their control. They say they have a demanding superior and that is all there is to it. As a result, such employees feel like victims, which only add to their stress. A good general rule whenever any obstacle or setback arises is to find solution to the obstacle. The key is to focus on the things you can change and not let yourself be defeated by what is out of your control. One thing people can control is their attitude, not that it is easy. But nothing anyone does forces you to feel stressed unless you choose to let it bother you.
Managing Demanding Bosses
• Never tell your boss that you cannot accomplish a particular task or you do not have enough time to accomplish a particular task. Instead, always let him know that you are willing and able to accomplish a particular task at the required time.
• Another useful thing to do is to find out the most pressing problem that needs urgent attention. Pay priority attention to this particular task.
• Always acknowledge that your boss is putting you under pressure because he is also under pressure. So, do not forget to appreciate the pressure your boss is under.
Reframe Your Role
The key step here is to think about your role as one of enabling things to happen instead of as one that entails doing things. Take time to train others in what you can do. Although this is time consuming, but it could be a great investment. Whenever you delegate or show someone else how to do some part of your job, you should position this as helping them develop, not as them helping you do your work. Again, focus on the other person’s needs, not your own.
Keep Fit
Keeping fit through exercise and good eating habits is the number one stress reliever. Avoiding drugs, tobacco and alcohol dependence is also a way of relieving stress.
Finally, learning to cope with pressure and stress has so many positive effects in an individual; dealing with it helps to increase longevity, increase individual output i.e. mentally and physically and improves the overall health status of any individual.
Onakomaiya Adekunle .O.
Onokok@yahoo.com
