New Year Goal: Make The New Year a Stress-Free Zone

January is known as Get Organized Month for those of us who are professional organizers. We’ve talked about it many times on this blog (like here). Since increased organization is usually on the top ten list of New Year’s resolutions, it’s only natural that we focus on this specific goal at the beginning of each new year.
The start of a new year is also a time that usually gets people thinking about other goals. This is a time to reflect on past achievements and to look toward accomplishing new ones. Some people recycle their old goals or look at them in a new way when a new year rolls around.
This is a helpful practice that can allow you create a reasonable plan for the year, but there is …

One Goal That Trumps All Others

And, that goal is to remain calm and balanced as much as possible.
Think of stress-free living as the thread that, when woven into the fabric of everything that you do, creates beautiful patterns … worthwhile habits that are easy to keep and that don’t feel burdensome.
[ctt title=”Remaining stress-free makes it more likely that you\’ll achieve just about anything you set out to do.” tweet=”Remaining stress-free makes it more likely that you’ll achieve just about anything you set out to do. ~ @DAlisonLee” coverup=”sceHq”]

What Stress Does to You

Stress can have a big, unpleasant impact on your general well-being and how successful you are with completing your goals. It can also negatively affect the people around you.
Keep in mind that stress can …

• Sap your motivation. When you feel anxious or stressed on a regular basis, you’re likely to experience an emotional and physical depletion that can lead to burnout. The pain of burnout is obvious: You just can’t get motivated. You might feel worn down, ineffective, and unproductive.
• Create negative emotions. You’ve likely experienced burnout at some point in your life and though you may not always be able to pinpoint when it’s about to attack, you do know how it feels. You might often find that glass to be half empty and about to break. Stress can make you tense, agitated, and unhappy. These feelings (along with other negative emotions) work quite well as people repellers, which only exacerbates the problem.
• Reduce your productivity. Feelings of negativity can often be reflected in your performance. How well you get stuff done and how consistently you cross things of your task list may decline and color your year in a dark hue … even before you really have a chance to get started on those important goals.
• Waste your time. Stress is a waste of time and energy because while you’re in the midst of it, you might not even realize it. You might keep rushing around trying to get stuff done when you could actually be having an amazing, fulfilling personal and work life. 
• Make other people feel anxious. Did you know that stress is contagious? Yes, really. Secondhad stress can be passed to those around you.

Sometimes burnout creeps up on you, building over time, while other times it jumps out of the blue and blindsides you. Be prepared and …

The New Year: Make it a Stress-free Zone

We’re all susceptible to feelings of stress. Unfortunatley, there is no magic pill that can remove anxiety completely from our lives. But, there are some simple things you can do to keep feeling of anxiousness and overwhelm at bay.
1. Focus on a stress-free theme for the year. Focus on cultivating a habit of an emotionally balanced life as you work toward achieving milestones. You may find that the more you focus on being calm and positive, you’ll …
2. Be more mindful. Being more aware of what causes you stress will help you be more strategic about what you allow in your life. You’ll also find that the more mindful you are, the more in tune you will be to how you’re feeling.
[ctt title=”Consider the circumstances, people, and projects that trigger stress for you. Stay away from them. ” tweet=”Consider the circumstances, people, and projects that trigger stress for you. Stay away from them. ~ @DAllisonLee” coverup=”5236_”] 3. Check your stress meter … before making a decision and gauge how anxious you’ll may feel when you come out on the other end of project or a decision you say “yes” to. Make a habit of doing a stress check before taking a step. When you’re stressed, you’re likely to make poor decisions and there’s research to back this up.
4. Call in the troops. You’ve likely heard this one before (and it’s a strategy I probably need to use more often) — you should ask for help. When you don’t have to do it all yourself, you can breathe a little easier. You can be still involved but not solely responsible for carrying out every single action.
Who can you tap on the shoulder for a little assistance?