A while ago I published a post about experiencing stress on your new job. Today I came across a post about “Top 10 Ways to Help You Stay Calm under Pressure” that I felt could be helpful if you’re experiencing stress and pressure either during your job search or after you land the new job. (I found this post via a an item shared by Edward Harrison, a member of the LinkedIn group, Top Leaders/Executives, which I also belong to.)
Stress-fighting Strategies for Your Job Search or New Job
According to the post (by Dr. Patty Ann Tubin), these are–briefly–the top 10 ways you can stay calm (i.e., minimize stress in your experience):
- Be Grateful!
- Think Positively.
- Go off the Grid.
- Get Sleep.
- Be Active.
- Practice Meditation.
- Don’t Play the Victim.
- Eat Healthy.
- Breathe Fully.
- Keep it All in Perspective.
That’s a pretty extensive list, although there might be even more that could be added. What I think the article does well is to take a commonsense approach to the situation, including asking a couple of wise questions in #10 and following it with this statement: “Chances are the answer to these questions will not incur loss of life. Anything less than that must be kept in perspective.”
So what I’m basically saying is that you can let the stress and pressure get to you and derail your progress (and very possibly your health) or you can work on incorporating as many of the top 10 techniques as you can–and as make good sense in your situation. For example, you might not be able to do meditation in the middle of a business meeting, but you can try to practice things like “think positively” and “breathe fully” (“take a deep breath” has long been advice given to someone who’s about to fly off the handle).
Need Help in Your Stress-Busting?
Sometimes you might need or want to call on a friend or colleague you trust to help you break out of stress mode. If they can give you relatively unbiased support (e.g., reasonably non-judgmental), they could provide much-needed breathing-room and perspective on the situation that’s fueling your stress.
At other times, it’s possible that more formal or trained support is what you most need. I’m no therapist or counselor, so I don’t advise my resume or job search clients on matters that veer into that territory. I can and have recommended that a client consult a trained professional for an issue that’s outside the scope of the services I’m qualified to provide. Most of the time you may be the best one to determine the nature or extent of your need for support, and as long as you recognize that you do need help and take steps to get it, that’s great.
Either way, I encourage you to identify the steps and resources you need in order to break the pattern of pressure-stress-pressure-stress, whether in your job search or in the new job itself. You’ll save yourself a lot of grief in the long run.
