$$$ Financial Stress $$$

I'm guessing many people fall into the category of middle income earners, slave to a capitalist society that sucks the life and strength out from both the mind and body.
I am a part of this society. The recent events that took place in many parts of the world is NOT making life any easier. Surviving the month becomes more of a struggle to many of us. I'm referring to the economic crisis and political ambiguity that's brewing all over the world, particularly in the United States of America.

One regular morning in June 2007, alarms started ringing at Wall Street signaling the beginning of the end for investment bank Bear Stearns, which by then has their foot too deep in the investments in mortgage-backed securities. The wound soon spread its sting to many other financial organizations all over the globe and the rest, as they say is history.
It is estimated that thus far, banks all over the world have had to writedown over 550 billion dollars in asset.

Many multi-billion dollar corporation are forced to "rightsize", leaving thousands of bread earners without a job, and not many places to go.
Those who narrowly escape the guillotine linger on to simply survive. Most employees will be left with minimal or no savings at all.

The domino effect has already taken foothold, markets world over starts tumbling causing an avalanche of inflation and plummeting currencies.

I wonder if you are as concerned over YOUR financial situation as I am of mine, particularly during this period of uncertainty. Reflecting over the events, with the collapse of Enron in 2001 and the recent AIG shared dropping like flies to its lowest point at only USD$1.25 from USD$68.53 just a year ago, I concluded that nothing is certain. You cannot find security even from a security firm. A company that insures you cannot even insure itself from self destruction.

The question remains...Will my family and I survive this financial uncertainty?
Stress Stress Stress!!!

With such a bleak future, what can we do about it?

It is said that all calamities can be overcome with the clarity of thought. If we are burdened with the unknown, we will not be well prepared to succeed.

I am going to share with you 4 simple steps to overcoming stress in general, which is NOT limited to elevating oneself from financial stress alone, but stress in the overall sense.

As it were, step one is literally only a step away. All we need to do is simply take 1 step...one step BACK, that is. By removing ourselves from the immediate issues clouding out mind, only then will we be able to see the entire picture. Such is the ability of great leaders.

Many of us cannot differentiate the difference between what's important and what's urgent. Most of us react to urgent matters, without even giving it a second thought if it were important at all. We assume all urgent matters are important. As I was taught, never to assume; because to assume is to make an ASS out of U and ME.

Once we see the important things that affects our lives, we may then have the clarity to dissect the issues on our hands. Step two will require us to simply identify and break down the issues. All mountains are made out of cumulative rocks and dirt. Once we identify the rocks from the dirt, we are able to further breakdown the rocks.

Thirdly, GET HELP. No man is an island. That's the goal behind every know culture in the world. People get into groups, be it a family, a political party, a conglomerate or even a nation to gather its strengths. It would be shameful if you do not seek for help when you need it. Do not let pride get in the way of progress and success.

Finally, be grateful and thankful when the mountain in your life is leveled. Show appreciation to those who has lend a helping hand. This will ensure that you keep your eyes on the big picture. That life is not just about you. It's about us...all of us...

Just a recap:
Step 1: Look at the big picture
Step 2: Breakdown the issues
Step 3: Get help
Step 4: Be thankful

A simple financial example would be to look at your financial health as a whole. What do you owe, and what do you own? What is your objective? Can you imagine what would make you contented and stress free? Perhaps a scenario where you're out of debt 100%? or perhaps at least to a level where your debts are in a manageable position?
Breakdown your financial health by identifying all your debts and your assets. Identify what you can do without, and consolidate your debts and remove whatever is possible. Your assets are NOT limited to material things. Sure you can sell some of your stuffs over Ebay and make a quick buck to pay for some of the debts. But most of us forget that each of us are blessed indeed with gifts and talents. We can easily make an extra buck by spending an hour mowing our neighbor's lawn every evening. That IS your asset! Time and health!
Simultaneously, get financial help. It doesn't necessarily mean borrowing from friends and family. There are financial aids out there that you have NOT explored. Surviving banks are now more desperate than ever to do business. Yes, they will probably be reluctant to provide loans, but they still do need your business to survive. Negotiate. With the proper attitude and planning, you will win over some good advice to the least, if not financially.
Now, you can be thankful that you still have access to the internet to read this. It can be used to much more use, for example google for more ideas and financial aids out there.

It's a long stretch, but the more stretching we go through, the more ready we are to face the future.

That's all from me now, with this note I pray that you will find success and peace on the roads ahead...

Light...Out

STRESSED or DESSERTS, your choice ?

Let me share with you today on an email I read about lately. STRESSED and DESSERTS.

There is a subtle correlation between the two, what is it relevant connection? It might not be obvious if you don’t read it the second time. The word STRESSED, if you read it from the right to left spells DESSERTS. Therefore, "STRESSED are just DESSERTS if you can turn around the situation."

What a coincident to the statement Light has made few weeks ago, “if you can’t resist it, take it”

I personally reckons that it really makes a huge difference when I look at the meanings of these two words plainly, just from the meanings: Initially when the word STRESSED come to mind, I envision tension, worry, anxiety and all the negative characteristics; but it magically became sweets, multi-flavored and multicolored delicious ice creams and tiramisu when I see the word DESSERTS.

Such a simple reversal of words totally turned my focus 180 degrees around to see things from another light.

There are lots of pressures and frustrations in life, but as long as long as we can make a switch, wisely, when we embrace these feelings, thus when our mindset is tuned, we find that we can look at all of these pressure and frustration from another angle. Our perception transforms the negative vibes to become the desserts in our life!

As a Chinese saying goes: "Life is like a bowl of rice, half sweet, half bitter, you have a choice of which side of the bowl you will start, with different ways of delivering the rice with your chopstick to your mouth, but certainly and eventually you will finished your bowl of rice regardless of whatsoever course of action you choose in between!”



The moral of the saying is that life, for all the sweet, bitter, sour or spicy is a journey of experience; and at the end of the journey you will have gone through all these! Below is the story I would like to share with you:

One fine day, a primary school teacher in the remote village asked her class, “Children, can you remember someone you hate?” Some of the children remained silent while others nodded vigorously. The teacher then issued to each person a empty bag and said: "Let’s play a game. Let us all now think of the person(s) in the past week that may have offended you, think about the bad things that he or she has done to you and go to the river bank after school to pick up a stone from the river bank, paste the name of the person on to the stone. Take a bigger stone if the offense is great, or else paste on a small stone if it is a minor offense”

“Take the bag to school everyday, will you?” the teacher reminded the students.

The students were all very interested and excited and sure enough everyone rushes to the river to look for stones after school.

Early the next morning, they have filled the bag with the cobblestones from the river bank and were happily discussing about it.

Days passed and they were still collecting their stone everyday and filling them into the bag. However some of them had almost filled the entire bag and it has become a burden to them. Finally, some students protested to their teacher that they are tired carrying all these stone with them. The teacher smile but said nothing. Immediately a student shouted "It is really tiring to load and carry the stones to and fro everyday to school!"

At this juncture, the teacher said with a smile: "So just put down all the stones, all that signifies the faults others have done to you!”

Some children were surprised when the teacher told them gently: "Learn to forgive faults, do not take it harshly inside your heart and do not carry it on your shoulders. As times goes on, no one could stand it..."

This group of students has learned a very valuable lesson in their life:
“Stones” that keep filling in the pocket will stay inside your heart. The hatred will deepen, thus the burden will be heavy.

I like the old saying: "Forgiving another's fault, accredits to our own glory."




We must learn when to let go wisely to feel free! STRESSED FREE!

Salt

p/s do you have a stone that written my name on it ? :)

Releasing the pressure inside, wisely and periodically, turn down uncontrolled stress !

I was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago. We chatted about almost everything, and I was asking him how was he fairing at work lately?

Surprisingly, (as some of us are jobless) he was telling me that he was very busy, so busy that he has been working almost 12 to 16 hours a day for the pass few months! And he still has to carry on for the next few months until the incoming inquiry for his company products slow down or there is an increase in the workforce in the office to lighten the burden.

I was curious and surprise!! How envious I am of his company, as the markets in general is not doing well!

He told me that he just changed to this new job and he is sort of being ‘programmed’ in a way that he needs to reply dozens of email a days and also to prepare proposal and quotations for all the incoming jobs inquiries (he wish he could) ASAP, beginning from the second day he was in the new job!

Unfortunately, that is not the end of the story; his direct superior was so busy that he received no coaching and guide from his boss and also because he is new to the job, the systems, the products; almost everything he was starting then, has to be done in an intensive on-job learning manner.

To add salt to the wound, the one and only senior colleague reporting to the same boss who was instructed to provide guidance and help did nothing to help, but made life difficult by simply pretending to help. Sounds familiar??

Fear on the new environment, worries of the quality and suitability of the proposals and relevancy of the quotations, concerns of his performance in the new job, and all other sorts of stresses keeps adding pressure!!

Wow, what a tragedy!!

However, I am truly astounded and impressed by his attitude reflected in the conversation that took place after:
We are not the hot tempered youngster as we were those days. Control your temper wisely. We are the ones who should take control of the anger and stress within, before our panic-stricken and mindless reaction take over that will turn out to be something regrettable soon after.

Release whatever the pressure building up inside you, before it explodes! Don’t you ever become a pressure vessel loading endlessly without a release valve in place! Release it every so often by whatsoever means that work for you; perhaps by taking a deep breath, a cool bath, a stroll in the park, a hearty laugh, a shouting contest with yourself, or many other methods to overcome the brainless stressing behaviors that might rule your life out!

When you without pressure, you will think wisely and well!

What a significant effect a release valve can do, so go find the valves in you. Will you?

Cheers...
Salt

Possibly a good way to relief built up Stress

Guys and gals, I'm not suggesting you try this, but it's possibly a real good way to relief some of the stream you've got inside....haha....



Light...out...

Cold-Call Sales-Stress

I don't know about you, but I've had my fair share of anxieties and stress over sale calls, particularly cold-calls, even over the phone.








To begin with, I'm an engineer by education and vocation, but eventually found myself to bore too easy with the life on a desk engineer, and soon defected to the "enemy" camp of sales/marketing and business. However, even before my "conversion", I knew in my heart that I would not LOVE sales and are not at all intrigued by going after sales and targets. I guess I'm just not even money motivated enough to chase after the commissions. So, why did I get into this job? Well, that's a long story for another day...

Recently, I had to once again engaged in cold calls to set appointments for visits to promote my company's services. I had the usual reluctance, mostly due to false expectations and anticipations...mostly negative and unreal fears. I mean, come on...what could anyone do to me over the phone?? Yet, I was still nervous and all worked up to make the calls and set the appointments.

However, thank God that it does pays to have experience. I listed what I needed to say and points that I needed to get through, particularly key words I needed to use to help me explain myself prior the making any sales call. This helped minimize the "ah..." and "umm..." and give me a little more confident in what I had to do.

So after a prayer and some calls later, to my delight I managed to secure a fair bit of appointments. All those fears and stresses amount to nothing. Wasted.
Not that I'm complaining...but I am reminded once again that with a little faith and preparation, I could actually minimize, if not eliminate stress from making sales calls in the future. If you ever encounter such similar problems, I hope my sharing would give you some ideas that will make it work for you as well....

Cheers....Light...Out.

My first STRESS on blog!

Hurray! Bravo! Thanks to my buddy Light, he really lighten me up when I see the blog become a reality, after so many hours of thoughts, waited so many days for myself to finally kick start as a blogger!

Something that I’ve wanted to do since early of the year.

I was definitely STRESS by my buddy Light when he told me that: "OK, fine, let blog-up now whatever we have been complaining all these while, speak up of things that has kept us in constant worries all the time, at the work place or even at home...RIGHT AWAY!"

Ironically, I'm here blogging about stress, while having all these stress and pressure from my buddy Light to take action and start writing.

At the outset when I met up with Light again recently, I was looking forward to catch up on old times and indirectly (while I am writing to this blog now, I reckon that at that particular moments) find a buddy to sit down, relax and maybe to voice out all my dissatisfaction in the work place, to find a way to release the ‘SICK’ inside me and inadvertently hoping to find someone that might share a similar experience at their work place (sorry to caught you Light, my brother, ha ha ), and eventually assuring myself that I am not the only one out there that is having those trauma at work. So a pat on the back, and get back to working with STRESS.

What a true statement, “ If you can't beat them, join them!”
I almost fell of my chair raising both my hands and legs immediately in agreement with Light.

Just as I was worrying and stressing before I started to pen down my thoughts for your reading pleasure now, the STRESS of writing a blog is no longer exist!

I just did it so naturally, and feel so spontaneous in speaking out my thoughts to share with all of you out there, in hope that blog will serve as a simple and effective solution to one and all to OVERCOME the STRESS that is always present and hidden within us, when we bring it all out to the open by verbalizing it right here and now.

To all the always-in-stress friends out there, we are not only declaring the battle on STRESS at work, but also to find ways of embracing STRESS together with you readers, perhaps even to befriend STRESS itself and take this friend together with us walking into tomorrow without fears and the many more tomorrow ahead of us!


cheers , toss for nostressatwork.blogspot.com


by Salt

The first fight: Battle of the Stresses

A buddy of mine and I decided that we've had enough!! We've finally decided to draw the line here. Work, job, career, money churner, stepping stone...whatever you call it wherever you're from, my bet is that you too have the same struggle against the common enemy, STRESS.

My buddy, nick named Salt and I came to work together in the same office about 6 years ago. We've endured long and tough work loads and ever demanding situations and bosses during the two years I was with the company. Four years has passed since I left the company, yet the nightmares of stress that I underwent is still vivid in my memory. I thought I had left for good the stress when I tendered my resignation, but lo and behold I was served larger and newer bowls of pain the last four years in my various "adventures" in other jobs. When I met up with my buddy Salt recently, I was not surprise to discover that he too was enduring similar pain at work.

Thus, we decided that we had to do something about it. We decided that we had to find a way to overcome stress. Not necessarily that the work in the office was bad or that you have a nasty boss, but work in itself will inadvertently have the tendency to promote a sense of tense, ie: STRESS.

If you can't beat them, join them!

If stress is always present and real, we shouldn't deny it. Neither should we close our eyes and try to wish it away. Instead, we have to confront the enemy. We have to embrace stress. We have to OVERCOME stress.

So the battle begins. We are dedicating our lives and time to search for solutions and strategies to managing stress. This is the reason for this weblog.
It is our intention that we can share with our friends all over the world, what we have experienced and could find to aid in the constant battles against stress. We hope that you will benefit from this, and also contribute and add to this log your own experiences and encouragement.

It is said that one of the best ways to release stress is to verbalize it. So please by all means, verbalize it here as we will.

Hope you'll enjoy as much as we hope to....cheers..... :)

Light...out...