Eustress: occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. It is the positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings.
Ambitious people tend to busy their lives in order to consistently strive towards meeting goals. However, the consistent strive for success can grow wearisome on even the strongest and most determined people. The following three simple strategies have been proven to help manage stress and maintain eustress:
Variety
Goals can be achieved in a balanced lifestyle. Having other aspects of life to work on simultaneously can keep you from burning out if one aspect of your life is not working out that at the time. Work experience in a different field or different groups of friends can grow you in a way that you would not expect. Focusing on one area of life and not diverting your attention in any other activities can be risky because if that aspect is not working out it can lead to burn out when there is nothing else to fall back on.
Sleep
Yes, staying up into the wee hours of the night to finish your favorite TV show series so that you can cry about it after is really fun but you will be paying for it for the next day… next week. After an 8+ hour night sleep you could conquer the world. Try it for a whole week and see what happens. If you have trouble sleeping at night try getting exercise during the day or not eating after 8. All of these suggestions are extremely radical and impossible but small improvements and making better choices every so often pays off. Step 1) Get a good sleep. Step 2) Conquer the world.
Plan Ahead
This one happens to come naturally to me but I know that it can be very challenging for many people. Planning ahead may not work for everybody but it is like having secret knowledge into the future. Scheduling and planning enables me to see when upcoming busy times will be and then I know how to schedule my time strategically in order to avoid extremely busy periods time as best as possible.
If the whole world was in a state of eustress imagine what we could accomplish. It is extremely exciting to be a dream chaser and maintaining a state of eustress is the best long term plan to make that happen!
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