How often do you reply with there is so much to do, I’m swamped or there aren’t enough hours in a single day!– when answering a colleague or a business partner about how work is? I bet it is your standard reply. Even if there isn’t much to do at the moment. Have you ever thought about how this is actually affecting you and the person you are replying to? This is stress management as a creative!
Managing stress as a creative
Handling stress is something every single one of us on the planet is forced to do. Both in our professional and personal life. And every one of us is handling stress different. Some of us excel in it and can keep calm during the most stressful situations while others almost get paralyzed.
Having a low or moderate level of stress from time to time is good. It makes us alert and to perform better. Having a very high amount of stress, especially for a long time is directly harmful for us. It gets harder to focus and concentrate, we get high blood pressure and we perform, creatively wise, on a low level. As a creative person, your paycheck is relying on you being able to come up with a design solution for an app, a snappy copy for a Facebook page or land that pitch with the new client. To be have a mind that constantly is under high levels of stress = disaster.
So why do we keep projecting your stress to other and yourself?
Every time you answer someone with the line “there is so much right now, I don’t know how keep up”you don’t only keep telling yourself that you are standing in front of a (sometimes) impossible task – you also project a part of your stress over on to that person. Now the both of you are a bit more stressed because the other person is stressed out. And that isn’t good for anyone.
Start with the man in the mirror
Instead of telling people that you are swamped with an unrealistic amount of work; tell them that it’s all under control and manageable. Why?
Because our brain is not a solid lump of meat, but a constant changing machinery. If we keep thinking a certain thought our brain will creating a path to this thought (to simplify it a lot) that makes it easier for us to think it. Just like a path in the forest – the more you walk it the clearer it will be. Our thoughts work the same way. So, if you keep telling yourself that everything is under control and manageable your body will adapt to it by lowering your stress levels.
And the best part? You are displaying to your business partner or potential new client that you are a creative person that have it all together and under control! Stress management as a creative!
The idea for this blog post comes from the book “Framgångsboken” by Alexander Pärleros. The book was a part of my summer reads to fuel my creativity.
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