Weekly Motivation

6 Easy Ways to Beat Job Stress

By: Eddie Robbins

Raise your hand if the following are true: Your boss recites Dilbert. The staff consists of the Pink Floyd Animals trifecta: dogs, pigs, and sheep. You hear blood churning through your ears, taste adrenaline in your saliva, feel sweat spreading out from your armpits as your stress levels rise, rise, rise…and then sit there and boil. No release. No escape.

Okay, hands down. Work stress rips us apart. It sabotages us. Inspires stupid comments snapped at people just as stupid. Makes us a Monday-through-Friday phosphorous burn.

Enough already. Tomorrow, and every day thereafter, remember these tips for controlling the weight on your shoulders. Because if you think your job isn’t your life, you’re dead wrong.

Throw Up Your Hands

And start juggling. “Juggling gets me out of my chair,” says Dr. Posen, admitting that his limited skills are actually helpful. “It’s hard to juggle without laughing at yourself.” Plus, it’s nearly impossible to think about work when you’re concentrating on juggling. And that’s the point: Regularly schedule 5 minutes of laughing distraction. Pick up Juggling for the Complete Klutz, beanbags included (about $10 on Amazon).

Buy a New Multivitamin

Tomorrow, revise your morning routine to include your antistress pill. In a University of Birmingham study of men 18 to 42 years old, British researchers found that those who took a daily multivitamin high in vitamin C and all the B vitamins enjoyed a 21 percent drop in anxiety, while those popping a placebo actually felt more stressed. (Perhaps from feeling deceived.) Even better, the multi men also rated themselves less tired and more focused. The probable cause: Research has shown that B and C vitamins help reduce the effects of stress. If you want to try the multivitamin used in the study—Berocca—go to . Ninety pills will run you $40.

Do the PC Stretch

With all due deference to Bill Gates, this is for everyone shackled to a friggin’ computer. “When we’re under stress, we usually lean forward to focus on what we’re doing,” says Neil Chasan, a physical therapist in Seattle. “This makes the muscles of the neck and lower back work harder—and they’re small to begin with.”

For quick relief, do what Chasan does when he’s deskbound: Clasp your hands behind your neck and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Now let your head fall forward so your chin is close to your chest, and bring your elbows together in front of you so they’re touching. Pull down with your hands for several seconds, then release. Repeat six to eight times whenever you’re knotted up.

Spy on Yourself

Hunched over a keyboard with knots in your shoulders? Yeah, and you probably didn’t realize it until you stopped to think about it. But who has time to stop when everybody around you is shouting, “Go, go, go!” like the Laker Girls from hell? West Virginia University researchers found that people’s stress levels dropped by 54 percent after a 2-month “mindfulness training” program—that is, simply paying more attention to the symptoms of stress, such as bunched-up muscles and fast, scattered thinking.

The good news: You don’t need a 2-month course. “Even minor adjustments can produce big benefits,” says Kimberly Williams, Ph.D., author of the study. This means paying attention if your thoughts begin to race or your breathing becomes shallow. And when you notice knots in your shoulders, you can . . .

Say the “O” Word

Ask David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, what’s the biggest office stress buster, and his answer is immediate: organization. “It’s what’s most needed and most lacking.” Even a very basic organizational habit can cumulatively save you hours in a work week. And, of course, more time means less stress. Allen’s most valuable habit? “My end-of-week review. I go over my inbox and my work lists. By far, it’s my best-spent time.” Thanks to that one wise Friday hour, he’s never frazzled or overwhelmed when the whistle blows on Monday morning.

Dump the Coffee

We know, coffee is in your blood—and that’s the problem. Caffeine is liquid stress, simultaneously boosting adrenaline production and suppressing adenosine, a natural relaxant in your brain. “Eliminating caffeine is more effective than any other stress-reduction strategy I know,” says David B. Posen, M.D., a stress expert and author of Always Change a Losing Game. In fact, Dr. Posen claims that 75 percent of his decaffeinated patients feel significantly more relaxed and, ironically, more energetic—mostly from better sleep.

To avoid withdrawal headaches, Dr. Posen suggests gradually cutting back by one cup at a time, beginning with your last cup of the day.

Psalms 140

7.  “O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
You have covered my head in the day of battle.

I heard a trainer once say “Motivation is the beginning of the goal, Discipline helps you achieve it”. In the beginning of a workout program you have a goal, to lose a few pounds, build muscle, tone up, etc… your motivation. Around the first two months for some people they start to fall from other distractions (sometimes life just takes you for a loop) and you stop. The next thing you know you start back at the beginning to your motivation.

It’s such a cycle for those who do this and yet it seems never ending battle, the battle of the goal.

Some say its lack of disciple, not for all, but for many. People who have great bodies will tell you they do not stay at the gym for 2 or 3 hours working out, if they do spend that much time send them over hear and I can help them with time management. Some athletes will spend 2 or 3 hours but this is there job (though I still think it too long depending on your sport). The difference is that there discipline enough to do there workout, and we see the results.

In battle, soldiers don’t give up in the middle of the fight. Soldiers fight till the end or retreat to figure out a different strategy. So don’t give up, stay in the fight to be discipline, and achieve your motivation… your almost there.

Knowing when to say  “when enough is enough”

Proverbs 25
16. Have you found honey? Eat only what you need,
That you not have it in excess and vomit it.

There come a time in ones life where we push the limits of our bodies (food, alcohol, etc..) and our bodies say NO.

In my younger years I pushed myself more than once and paid for it for a day or many days to come.

I was once in Hawaii on a missionary retreat, and to the show there hospitality they laid out a food spread that was incredible. I mean I didn’t know where to start. I had a plate of food and was full. Next thing I know, a young woman walk up to me and asked, “Would you like some more”. Feeling in a comatose state (probably from the carbs I ate) I respectfully declined. As I looked around many people were going back two to three times for food. At the end of the meal, our host stood up and said” As you can see, we don’t eat to get full, we eat till our jaws get tired”. Unfortunately, the size of the people showed this to be true.

There comes a point when we all must put the fork down and back away from the plate. Overeating is not a good thing. You may have to hurt some peoples feelings by leaving some food on your plate. My grandmother would be so disappointed when I would, yet happy when she began to see the healthier me. If you can, serve you own plate of food. If you can’t serve your food, chew each bite 32 times before swallowing. Yes it will be mush by the time you swallow, but it will also be easier to breakdown on the stomach. Can’t chew 32 times, try having a conversation between bites. When in doubt, go back to step 1, put the fork down and back away from the plate.

No one wants to puke (if you do, that’s a problem) and food takes a awhile for the brain to signal that you are full. Enjoy the taste, enjoy the smell, and enjoy the sight. You’ll feel better for doing it.

Fear…of what?.. The fear of accomplishment

In training I come across some clients who have fear. Fear in changing there bodies, fear of climbing that mountain, etc, etc.. yet when I ask them if you faced your fear and accomplished what they thought could not…the answer is no. The only fear we have is accomplishing what we had to do. Some people call it procrastination. At time I too have to ask myself “Is this wasting time or is this being productive?”. If you fail to plan to plan to fail, how many times had we heard that.

Grab life by the heavens wings, soar to new heights, and see what you can truly accomplish.

Question & Actions

Q- What are you waiting for?

A-Write down 5 things you would like to accomplish in 5 weeks and 5 months. Write a plan of how you will begin.

Post your replies here and let’s make it happen

Newton’ First Law is the law of Interia. It goes something like this – “Objects in motion will stay in motion & objects at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force.” Now I’m sure you’re wondering how Newtonian physics relates to your motivation levels? Well let me tell you.

We’ve all felt the power of being in a training rhythm. We get a few positive days of training in and we start looking forward to the next one. If we miss a workout we’re even more motivated about making up for it the next day. We’re psyched about what we’re accomplishing with every workout and we’re reaping the rewards of our efforts. More energy, looking better, loads of confidence with a clear mind.  I for one am just plain miserable if I don’t do something physical every day. This is the upside of inertia.

Sadly there are a lot more people on the downside. Trying to break out of sedentary habits; exercise is uncomfortable at best; things shake and bounce, and unusual levels of soreness accompany workouts. In this state, the body is doing its best to send very persuasive, negative messages to just stop what we’re trying to start! Simply put, the whole effort feels a bit like Sisyphus struggling to push his stone uphill. These are tough conditions to fight through and perserverence is a challenge to be sure.

So as you can see, inertia is really a double edged sword.

Several other important characteristics of inertia to consider are that:

1. The bigger the object is, the more external force it takes to get it moving in a different direction
2. On earth, inertia is continually affected by gravity which results in friction.

Training has its own gravity that slows it down and conspires to siphon off our positive inertia and bring the whole show to a stop. This friction takes many forms:

• Family obligations
• Work blowing up
• Not enough sleep
• Travel
• Poor energy / nutrition

Any one of these things can threaten our motivation.
So what can we do to keep ourselves on track and achieving our goals. Here are 5 Tips to Staying Motivated

1. The hardest step is the first one!
Ironman legend Scott Tinley once wrote “… and so I went for a run, because I’ve never come back from a run feeling worse than when I left.” How many times have we felt unmotivated and lethargic but then we forced ourself to do the workout  –  Within minutes of beginning we feel a giant charge of energy? By the end we are often overcome with a sense of well being, thrilled that we expended the effort and wondering how we ever struggled to get going. This is a lesson that it seems needs to be learned over and over again. The reality is that “I don’t feel like it.” are words spoken by someone sitting, not someone training. Know that if you can just get going, you’re going to feel GREAT!

2. An overnight success is the result of consistent toil.
Louisa May Alcott wrote that “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they may lead.” Long term goals are powerful but the reality is that they cannot be reached in a single leap. It takes many small seemingly insignificant steps to attain something truly significant. To this point focus some energy on identifying simple, attainable short term goals. “By the end of this month I will complete a set of low rows with my feet at the anchor point.” or “I will train 3 times this week” or “Today I will complete this workout in 30 minutes”. It is these daily, weekly and monthly goals that lead to sustained motivation and the realization of those highest aspirations.

3. Don’t make excuses, Make it happen!
Excuses are what happens when the “friction” outlined earlier wins. Let’s face it, life’s busy and it will lay down it’s challenges. It’s inevitable, much like the following quote “Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up, depends on the stuff you are made of.” So are you going to succomb to life’s challenges or will you rise above them? Here are some examples:

1. Your day blows up at the office. Have a short metabolic “contingency workout” that you jam through on these days as opposed to blowing your whole session off. A shortened workout is better than none at all!
2. You have a business trip – Train in your hotel room before or after your day. Before you leave commit to doing a certain number of workouts while you’re on the trip
3. Your kids have a soccer game during your usual workout time – do some bodyweight exercises,get your training in and watch your kids at the same time.
4. There is an athlete I work with who is an exec with a demanding job, two busy kids and one of the best age-group triathletes in the country. How does he fit in 25 – 30 hour training weeks on top of everything else? One of the ways is by involving his family. His kids ride their bicycles next to him on his training runs giving him interval splits, yelling encouragement and feeding him water.
5. This week the Los Angeles Lakers will play Boston Celtics in Game 6-7 of the NBA Finals – you can bet I’ll be watching BUT I’ll also be doing one of my workouts to make sure I can enjoy the game without missing my training.

I think you can see where I’m headed here. There is almost always a way to make it happen!

4. Peer Pressure Works
While you might be perfectly happy to hit snooze 26 times at the 5:30 AM alarm if it is only yourself to answer to, this scenario is quite different if you’ve planned to meet someone to train with. Knowing the phone will ring and you will face a “Where the hell are you?” is a sure way to respond to that alarm the first time. Find a workout partner or hire a trainer. This external pressure to commitment does wonders to keep your adherence high.
Another tactic is to tell your family, friends and co-workers what your are setting out to achieve. This will serve to elevate your motivation as now that it’s out in the open you will have to rise to the occassion and produce results or face the spectre of admitting defeat publically. One final way which I was introduced to through John Berardi of Precision Nutrition is outlined  in “The Blackmail Diet” by John Bear. In this case Dr. Bear arranged for $5000 to be paid in trust to the Nazi Party unless he lost 70 lbs in a year. He ended up losing 76 lbs and the Nazi Party missed their payday.

5. Commitment, Discipline & Sacrifice
I’ve always been humbled by the achievments of many of my clients. They’ve excelled in their field and made amazing contributions and to do so have shown unusual levels of commitment and discipline. Every one of them has made sigificant personal sacrifices to reach the levels they have. Unfortunately in many cases, one of these sacrifices has been their health. In his book “Outliers”, one of the arguments that Malcolm Gladwell makes is that it takes about 10000 hours of practice to achieve true excellence in any field, regardless of innate talent. Now 10000 hours is a lot of time. It works out to almost 10 years, practicing for 3 hours per day – EVERY DAY!
I’ve always found it interesting that my clients have stuggled with turning the same lens that they use to achieve success in business on their health.

Success in health requires the same commitment, discipline and sacrifice that success in any other field requires. You have to commit to the process of eating well and training regularly and with intensity. You have to muster the discipline that is required to get your workout done, day in and day out and not succomb to poor food choices. In order to have this discipline you also have to be willing to miss out on a few things that others don’t. Wake up an hour earlier to get your workout in, pay a little bit more for organic food or locally grown fruits and vegetables. A close friend of mine used to have the mantra of “Weights before dates!”

Now am I saying you have to be ready to commit to 3 hours a day of training or you might as well forget about it? Of course not. In fact – quite the opposite. 30 minutes of good focused exercise per day on the TRX can bring astonishing results, especially when combined with solid nutrition. I will say that the reality is that most people don’t achieve their fitness goals because they do not hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to applying a modest yet consistent measure of commitment, discipline and sacrifice. Understanding that this is a requirement and taking personal responsiblity for the outcome is a great way to help keep yourself motivate.