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Some people use the leisure of vacation time to take a trip and evaluate goals when they have more time to really think them through. Sometimes we reach an important point along the way towards a goal that can serve as an occasion to reassess the goal. We may choose to continue on, to change the goal slightly or even to abandon it in favor of some other goal which now seems better. There is only so much time in life, and we can’t do everything we might like to.

Goal setting and periodic goal revision is crucial when it comes to stress management.  A goal previously set may be not suitable to us due to the change in circumstances, our own life experience, our expectation and our priorities in life.  Hence, it is important to understand that goals should be rigid.  Goals should be flexible and we should accept it if we find that adjustments should be made.  Otherwise, we will be caught in the situation and stress will build up over a goal which is no longer applicable to us.

Focus On The Goals Too Much Increases Stress

If we continue to focus on our future goals, we will forever be stressed over it and we will never enjoy living in the present, because we are preparing to enjoy the future, and that future never comes. Goals are for direction and planning. After they have been established, we need to put them the  back  of our mind and begin to concentrate on  process.

Concentrate On The Process To Achieve The Goals Will Reduce Stress

Concentrating on the process of achieving the goals means immersing ourselves in and thoroughly enjoying what we are doing now, not just as a means to an end but as an experience in and of itself. If we have our direction set by goals and throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the process living and doing, we are most likely to enjoy our lives and achieve our goals instead of getting stressed over whether the goals can be achieved. In many areas of life, we can go too far in eitheir extreme. It is the right balance which is most satisfying.

Thought Stopping Technique To Reduce Stress And Anxiety

Of course, saying we are not going to think about our goals too much is easier than actually doing so. In order to keep  the goals and process in perspective we need to be mentally vigilant and refuse to let ourselves become preoccupied with future goals. We can do this by working at being patient and by forcing ourselves not to think about them too much and get stressed over it. If you have trouble doing this, there is a technique called thought stopping which will help your to focus on the process and reduce anxiety.

Thought stopping technique is an anxiety reducing technique that is used to get rid of obsessive ideas or thoughts that sometimes incessantly run through a person’s mind. Often these thoughts preoccupy a person to such an extent that he can’t seem to get them out of his mind. This can be very upsetting and anxiety producing.

Before you start this anxiety stopping technique, ask a friend to standby first. In using the thought stopping technique, you are instructed to get the thought that has been bothering you firmly in your mind.  You then signals your friend who shouts very loudly, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”.

This is repeated several times each session for two or three sessions. After a few times, you are instructed to say “Stop” in your mind while your friend will say it out loud. Then you are told to say it in your mind when the thought comes to your during the day. You are also instructed that after you shout “Stop” in your mind you should think of something or do something else that will absorb your interest. This rather simple technique is often very effective in reducing a person of obsessive thoughts which also helps to reduce stress and anxiety.

How To Achieve Realistic Long Range Goals With Planned Realistic Short Range Goals

Once a long range goal is set, carefully analyze it in terms of the exact short range goals that must be accomplished to get there. Determine the path of short range subgoals that is most likely to lead successfully to the long range goal for you. There is almost always more than one way to achieve a given long range goal. You don’t have to do it the way somebody else did. You need to go about it the way that is most likely to lead to success for you, with your strengths, weaknesses, and personality and you will experience less stress along the way.

Be Patient With Our Goals Otherwise You Will Get Stress

“Rome wasn’t built in a day”. The point here is that we must be patient with goals. Otherwise we set ourselves up for chronic frustration, tension, and anxiety before you even achieve your goals.

Tips In Setting Good Realistic Short Range Goals

• As with long range goals, short range goals should be realistic too.
• Short range goals should be small and discrete steps toward the long-range goal.
• Should be things we can do more or less immediately and that will move us along towards the long range goal.
• Short term goals should be more specific than the long-range goals. They should be sufficiently specific to enable us to know what we want to accomplish next and where we are going. Otherwise we will find ourselves standing around thinking that we want to get closer to our long-range  goal but making no progress in the right direction.
• Our approach to accomplishing these short-range goals should be planned and organized in such a way that we have a high likelihood of getting them done.
• If we fail at one of our short-range goals, we should not make more of it than it really is. We often catastrophize at times like this and behave as though one false step means we will never make it to our ultimate goal. This is rarely, if ever, the case. If we fail at a short-range goal, we should back up and try it again, or we should figure out an alternate route that will get us around the barrier. We should not let minor setbacks depress, frustrated and stress us. They are to be expected and overcome. They are all part of it.
• When you achieve a short-range goal, celebrate it. Celebrate liberally as you go along. This way, you are reinforcing your believes or rewarding yourself for desired behavior. This is a way to build your confidence and will help you to manage and reduce your stress when your are feeling down at times.

Start working systematically on the short range goals and be patient.  Things that are worthwhile take time.  Set up a time schedule that is realistic. Then, allow yourself half again that amount of time before you begin to worry about not making progress. People with goals they want to achieve always underestimate the length of time it will take to  accomplish them. Be patient and be confident with yourself and do not stress up if you encounter any obstacles along the way.  It is part of life !

Tips For Setting Good And Realistic Long Term Goals

When come to setting a good and realistic long term goals, consider the following rules:-

• Decide whether the goal is an appropriate one or not.
• Watch out for those that are too high, too low, or possibly false goals.
• Careful consideration of all relevant information will serve as a guide. It also helps to talk to others and learn from their experience.
• Get good advice from friends and / or professionals about whether it this is a good, realistic goal for a person such as you. In the end, however, you will have to make the decision.
• Make long range goals that are general rather than specific. If they are too specific, we almost always set ourselves up for failure. If they are more general, we will find that they can be achieved in a number of ways and we can be content with a umber of accomplishments.
• It is better to set the goal of being an educated person and going as far as circumstances permit in college training, than to make the goal obtaining a Ph.D. from Harvard with a straight A average. It is better to set a goal of being a good contributor to community betterment than to decide that we must be voted the most outstanding citizen by some club and be elected the youngest mayor the city has ever had.
• Goals that are too specific almost always are frustrated and lead to a feeling of failure. Even when achieved, they are often found to be hollow and falser.

You will find that by carefully setting good realistic long range goals, you will feel more satisfied when it is achieved and the process of achieving the goals are more pleasant and less stressful.

What Is Long Range And Short Range Goals

In order to set good realistic goals, we must first understand the process of setting goals.  In goals setting, we need to
understand that there are long range and short range goals.

Long-range goals refer to major things we want to accomplish eventually in our lives.  It can take us 10 years, 20 years or even our whole life to achieve this goal.

Whereas, short range goals refer to the things we have to do more or less immediately. They are the tasks that we set for ourselves to accomplish each day. A well planned short range goals will eventually lead to the achievement of our long range goals.

For example, if we want to be earn our first million by the age of 35, this is a long-range goal. Short-range goals towards this long term goal would include passing tests and completing assignments in the necessary courses in college, obtaining our college degree, and finding a job that will pay us well.  We will also need to have a specific realistic income targets each year and project it to see whether it is realistic to earn a million dollar by the age of 35.  If not, we will need to review our goals.

Set Realistic Short Term Goals To Reduce Stress

A good set of realistic goals is not simply putting down what you want. We also need to consider our capabilities whether we can achieve those short term goals in order to get to our long term goals.  Otherwise, we will create unnecessary stress and anxiety to ourselves when we fail to achieve our short term goals.  Goals and targets should be reviewed every year and modification should be made accordingly.

Why People Fear To Set Goals

Some people drift along with the tide. They don’t seem to have any goals. Their lives appear to be lack of directions. As a result, they don’t achieve much, though, they are often very capable and talented individuals. People who know them frequently lament the tragedy that they are not more goal directed and more productive.  Yet, they live a life of fear and anxiety.  Why?

Commonly, people who drifts with the tide tend to lack self-confidence. They either set very low goals or does not set goals at all because they fear that they will fail and know that failure will make them stress and anxious, therefore they do not set goals.

Setting Unrealistic High Goals Creates Stress And Anxiety

At the other extreme are people who constantly set very high goals for themselves. In fact they set such high goals that it is impossible to achieve them. These people are chronically tense and miserable because they are constantly failing. Every unachievable goal is a failure and it creates more stress and anxiety in them. Even goals that they achieve but which took longer to achieve than they had planned are regarded as failures. Such people drive themselves relentlessly.  Often, they accomplish a great deal but they don’t enjoy it. They fact that they didn’t accomplish as much as they had wanted to as soon as they had hoped robs them of any pleasure in their achievements. After a time they find their energy sapped by this tension and stress. They become disillusioned with their goals and frequently turn to cynicism and depression.

The way to manage our daily stress is to set realistic goals for ourselves. If we do so, it gives direction to our lives, gives us a feeling of accomplishment when we achieve the goals and helps us to be successful and productive people.

1. How To Set Good Realistic Goals
2. How To Set Realistic Long Term Goals
3. Tips For Setting Realistic Short Term Goals
4. Reduce Stress And Anxiety Technique
5. Flexible Goal Adjustment Reduce Stress

Start The Day Without Stress

You may be surprise to learn that workplace stress may not necessary trigger by work itself. It can be triggered simply by a bad start of the day.  So, in order to reduce workplace stress, we should start our day without stress.

A simple way to have a good start of the day is be prepared and plan for those routine tasks that we must do every day. For example, we can lay out our work clothes for the next day before we go to bed so that we can sleep peacefully and when we wake up in the morning, we can get dressed and ready without having to make a lot of decisions about what to wear or having to look for clothing.

Another way to have a stress free morning is get your work things reduce the night before your sleep so that you won’t leave anything behind and get panic over it when you reach your office. A good tip is to put things under your car keys if you do not want to forget them. Or put a note under your keys if you need to do an important task in the morning. That way, you can’t leave without seeing them. These are very simple things, but they can greatly reduce the number of daily stress and start the day smoothly.

Structural Planning Reduces Workplace Stress

A good way to cope with work stress is to use structural planning techniques. Structural planning techniques are able to reduce our workplace stress and help us to cope with our job better.  For example, when a job task is being assigned to us, we must come out with a structural plan and consider structuring questions about tasks.

First, we think about what it is we are trying to accomplish, how are we going to achieve the objective, what is the time given, is there any priorities we need to set, etc. With structuring planning, it will often help amazingly in our efficient carrying out of the task without undue anxiety and frustration.

The basic principle of structuring applies to all sorts of tasks. Take, for example, a minor repair job around the house. If we think about what has to be done, plan a little, and see that we have the correct tools and materials at hand, the job can be fun. It is often enjoyable to putter around at little tasks. However, poor  structuring results in such experiences ending in frustration, anger, and failure.

How To Reduce Stress And Manage Work Appointments

One important tip is to schedule your departure for meetings and appointments with enough time so that you don’t have to rush.

Another common structuring technique is to keep track of appointments and duties by writing them on a digital diary or calendar marked with the hours of the day every day of the year. Calendars of this type are made small enough to carry in a vest pocket or to keep on a desk. Keeping a pocket size notebook is also very handy as it can help to keep track of things. Constantly make lists of things to do and write notes to yourself about things you want to remember in a meeting is the best way to manage your appointments stress.

While one can become overly compulsive about such  techniques, life  structuring  can  prevent  many  needless   anxieties  from  ever arising. Thinking and planning in advance are the key to managing workplace stress. If we do that well the event will be no problem when it occurs.

For example, suppose your boss says he wants you to give speech in the new employees dinner. This is  a  rather  vague  request,  and  in  many  companies,  it  might  be communicated to a person over the phone or in a memo following a meeting by the committee planning the program. Such a vague request often leads to considerable anxiety about what is expected and what to say. We want to do a good job, especially in front of so many people but we really do not know what to say or where to start when standing on a stage looking down at some many people.

Structural Planning Reduces Stage Fright Anxiety

In order to reduce the anxiety we may experience when standing on the stage giving out the speech, we can structure and plan the situation carefully. To structure the situation, we might ask the person making the request that we need a little more information in order to make plans. We would then ask a number of questions such as

• What will have been covered in earlier meetings with the employees?
• What function is the talk to fulfill?
• How long is the speech going to be?
• Should it be light and entertaining or a more hard-hitting ‘pep talk’?
• Are there any points that should definitely be covered, or is the content entirely open?
• Are there any copies of talks given in previous meetings?

Once these questions have been answered, you will feel less stressed and you can start to draft your speech and the task becomes more manageable. The simple technique of structuring the situation keeps us from floundering and gets us started in the right direction.

Preparation For Speech To Reduce Stage Fright Anxiety

Once your speech have been drafted, you can prepare yourself for the speech by doing the following in order to reduce anxiety and stage fright:-

1. Do some rehearsal in front of a mirror so that you are familiar with the flow of your speech. If you have a chance, your can practice it in front of your friends or family members.
2. Avoid being rushed or distracted before your speech.
3. Practice meditation or breathing relaxation exercises which will help your mind to calm down and reduce stress and anxiety.
4. Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on stage making the speech. This will help you to have an expectation.
5. Use deep breathing to calm your body if you are still feeling anxious.
6. When reading out your speech, keep in mind that you slow read slower that your usual pace because when you are standing on stage feeling anxious, you will tend to speak much faster.
7. If you are still feeling anxious when your are standing on the stage, do not look into your audience eye. Try to look far to the front of the wall as you read your speech out.

What Is Structural Planning

Structural planning is one of the most effective way of managing stress and anxiety experience in our daily lifestyle. In structuring a situation, we develop a plan or a strategy of activity that will lead to a desired result.  In planning, we give ourselves an opportunity to organize things and plan the situations so that things will go smoothly in the sequence of order we want without much unexpected surprises.

How Does Structural Planning Reduces Stress And Anxiety

Very often we are confronted with a task that puzzles us in terms of exactly how we  should proceed. We do not know where or how to start. This leads to much tension, stress and anxiety. Often it results in us, putting off doing anything about the task and eventually leads to failure. Frequently, if we can just clearly structure and plan the task, we will get over the hurdles easily.  With structural planning, we are able to expect what will come next after each session because it is all in the plan. Hence,we have a good chance of successfully completing the task without much tension, stress or anxiety.

1. How To Overcome Stage Fright Anxiety
2. How To Reduce And Manage Workplace Stress