I saw a great quote on stress. It goes something like this:
Our greatest stress is not from having too much to do but from not keeping the agreements we make with ourselves.
Well. Here’s an example. I had week off work and, as usual, made way too many commitments to myself about things I was going to get done. I wanted to finish my next edition of Planning for Practice Success, and I also wanted to work on a quilt for my daughter-in-law, and I wanted to read a book I’ve been saving, and there were a couple of projects I wanted to get done around the house, and … You get the idea. By the time I got through the week I was totally stressed because ofall the things I “promised” myself I wanted to get done. We have enough stuff coming at us from outside, so why put more stress on ourselves from inside too?
How do we avoid this kind of stress? My coach, Ernie Moore, has good advice on this topic. He says:
1. Only to commit to THREE THINGS at a time. If you finish all three, add three more. In other words, keep your commitments to a minimum, do those, andonly then do you commit to more.
2. For any self-commitments that are complex and have several parts, write down a “work order” for that job. For my P4PS re-write, for example, I wrote down exactly what I will do and, more important, what is NOT part of that project. If I were going to commit to cleaning out a closet this week, it could turn into a major project involving going to Goodwill, cleaning out every closet in the house, and painting the bedroom. If I sit down beforehand and write out “this is what I will do,” I avoid the stress of taking on too much, and I can better stick with my time frame. Writing things out also helps you prioritize, and it forces you to focus on what must be done and what can wait.
This kind of thinking works well for starting your practice. Prioritize key elements of this project, stick to doing only three at a time, and write out what needs to be done, when it must be done, and what can wait until later.
April 1 is the lauch date for the new Planning for Practice Success Startup Edition with a great new workbook full of tasks, set out in priority order, to create your business plan and start your practice. This is my #1 and ONLY task, until it’s done. No stress, I swear.
N ewsletter subscribers will get a preview soon. Click HERE to subscribe.
Here’s to a fun and stress-free spring!
Jean
