10 Stress Reducing Tips | Jack Canfield

Hi there, I'm Jack Canfield. Today I'd like to teach you some powerful stress reducing tips that will help you breathe new energy into your life and into your business. And these 10 tips will help you increase your productivity levels and empower you to get more done with much greater ease.

But first, let's talk a little bit.

About stress and why it's so important to take action to lower the amount of it that you experience in your life. Now, first off, stress has a hugely negative impact on your physical, mental and emotional well being. And we know that heightened levels of stress make it harder for you to think clearly, which can inhibit your ability to make smart decisions. And stress can also make it harder for you to manage your emotions, which can negatively impact both your personal and your professional relationships. If you've ever found it hard to control negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, frustration or despair, you know what I mean? And stress not only affects your mental and emotional health, it can also literally make you sick. Stress can lead to ulcers, increased blood pressure, migraines, heart issues, insomnia and chronic fatigue. And it can lower your immune system, which is not something you want in today's world. Now studies show that stress can even contribute to getting cancer. Now another thing you don't want right now, I'm telling you this because I want you to know that taking action to reduce the amount of stress you experience in life is, isn't selfish or a sign of weakness. It's absolutely necessary for your personal well being and for your ability to take good care of others. It's like the announcements about putting on your oxygen mask on a plane in case of emergency. You have to put on your own mask first before helping others. Otherwise you may pass out and be of zero use to anyone else in the process. So that's why I encourage you to watch this video to the very end and make a conscious effort to implement the stress reducing tips I'm about to share with you. Okay, so let's get into it. Now, my first stress reducing tip is to set clear goals for yourself. And I'm talking about long term goals, short term goals, and daily goals that clearly define what you want to accomplish with your time. Because when you don't have clear goals, you won't have a strong sense of where you're heading in life. And you'll be far more likely to go off in a bunch of different directions, which will lead to a lot of wasted time and unnecessary frustration and undoubtedly add to your stress levels. And that's why I encourage you to set what we call smart goals. S M A R T To ensure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bounded, you have a bigger chance of achieving smart goals than goals that are vague or too broad. And because you'll have a clear idea of exactly what you want to do and when you want to accomplish it by, you're going to find it so much easier to prioritize your time, focus on what really needs to get done.

And achieve what you were hoping to achieve.

And all of that is going to make your life so much less stressful.

And so much more rewarding.

Now my next tip is to focus on one task at a time and eliminate all unnecessary or unrelated tasks. Tons of research has proven that multitasking is wildly overrated. You're going to be able to achieve so much more, so much faster, and with far less stress if you do one thing at a time and focus all of your time and all of.

Your attention only on that one thing.

And before moving on to the next thing.

And also be sure to focus on.

Tasks that will actually move you closer to your goals. Remember the Pareto principle, also known as the 8020 rule. It says that 80% of your productivity tends to come from 20% of your efforts. So the key to being more efficient is to focus on the 20% of those tasks that actually yield the strongest results. So take some time to really examine which of your activities really produce the greatest results and the greatest impact the greatest revenues. Now figure out which customers or clients produce the most income.

Which brings us to my next tip.

Remember to delegate Now.

I'd not be able to accomplish nearly as much as I do without my team.

Every high achiever has a powerful team of key staff members, supporters, mentors, colleagues, friends and family who are willing to lend a helping hand.

So don't be afraid to reach out and help.

Ask for help if you need it.

Maybe you can ask your partner to.

Drive the kids to school for the next few weeks.

Or maybe you can outsource a time.

Consuming administrative task to someone who would.

Be happy to take care of it for you.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help.

Or delegating your task to someone else.

So that you can be free to focus on your core goals.

Not only does it allow you to use your time more efficiently, it also gives valuable work and experience to others by not to mention the opportunity to.

Help out and be of service.

And don't let a lack of money stop you.

With so many people out of work.

These days, there are all kinds of people you can reach out to for not a lot of money to help. Now, if you find yourself running into roadblocks, my fourth stress reducing tip is to be kind to yourself. Focus on learning what you can from the experience and look at your setbacks, your disappointments as powerful opportunities for growth. If you have a win or lose mindset, you're always going to be anxious and you're going to be bound to be disappointed in the end.

But if you have a growth and.

Learning mindset, you'll be less stressed about the outcomes and you'll always benefit from acquiring new information that will help you improve your performance and get better results in the future. And while you're being kind to yourself, make sure to be kind to others and show gratitude for everything you have in your life. Look for the good in every every situation, even those you would normally view as negative. It's easy to be disappointed and get upset at others who don't meet your expectations. I get that. But be mindful of the journey we're all on and that we're all imperfect. So accept things for what they are and be grateful for every piece of feedback, every amount of effort people put in, and every opportunity you're given. Having a more positive outlook on life's big and small events will tremendously reduce your stress. I want you to think about this statement. No matter what happens, life is happening for you, not to you. You may not see that now, but you will someday, so why not choose to believe it now? If you take time to think back over your life to some of the seemingly bad things that have happened to you, you'll begin to see that there was a benefit that later came from it. You know the girl who turned you down in high school is now a hopeless drug addict. The the job you lost eventually led to a much more fulfilling career. The pandemic that forced you to work from home has meant that you got to spend more time with your wife or your husband or your children. And that accident you had that laid you up for a month helped you reevaluate your priorities and led you to creating a much more balanced lifestyle. You get the idea, all right. Another powerful way to reduce stress is to develop a more positive mindset. So if you're looking for bad news in life, I promise you, you will always find it. But fortunately, the same is true of good news. When you train your brain to focus on the positive, you're going to be amazed at how much brighter your outlook will become. And one way to focus on creating more positive outcomes is by repeating positive affirmations. As you've probably heard me say many times, affirmations are simple positive statements declaring goals in their completed states, and they're a great way to focus your brain on the positive results you want to achieve as opposed to the negative results you're hoping to avoid. For example, if you're planning an event, an affirmation you could use to stay positive and motivated might be I'm so happy and grateful celebrating that my event was a huge success and that my participants gave me so much wonderful feedback. Now, affirmations work because they redirect your mind away from your limiting beliefs, which are a huge source of uncertainty and stress, and they help you to focus on the positive outcome you want. Instead, they help replace your I can'ts with I cans, and they transform your fears and doubts into confidence and certainty. And as you can imagine, they help to alleviate your stress in the process. After all, if you're not obsessing over things that could go wrong, but instead you're focusing on the outcome you want and the solutions you can implement to make sure things go right, there's not very much mental time left to worry about or any content to worry about. Now, daily affirmations are to the mind what exercise is to the body. Which brings us to our next tip. Eating healthy and taking care of your physical well being. You know when life is challenging and your lifestyle is a busy one, it's so easy to get caught up in skipping meals, grabbing fast food, neglecting sleep, and not getting enough exercise. But eating regular and healthy meals, exercising and getting enough sleep are essential for reducing stress. So when your mind and your body are feeling run down and sluggish, it's very difficult to show up as your best self and get the results you want in life. So I strongly encourage you to improve what you're eating, get more exercise, and make sure to get enough sleep. If you're like so many people during the lockdowns caused by the pandemic, you may be sitting in front of your computer all or most of the day. And a great suggestion is to set the alarm on your cell phone to go off every hour and then get up and move around for a few minutes, take a short walk, put on a piece of music and do a dance to it, do some yoga postures, or do the simple bounce and shake exercise, which is a qigong exercise I teach in all my trainings. So let me teach you how to do that right now. It's really simple. It's Easy to do and yet it really energizes and relieves stress in your body very quickly. So here's all you have to do. You stand, flex your knees, you start to bounce up and down. You're not leaving your feet, so there's no impact on your spine. You want your hands to be in front of your right below your chest, maybe your navel. And you want your wrist to be loose and you're just bouncing up and down like this. That's why it's called bounce and shake. And if you do that for just like a couple of minutes, that's all you have to do, literally two minutes, you're going to have energy all through your body. It's going to be, you're going to feel it in your feet, your legs, your arms, your hands, your head, your face will start smiling. And it's really simple. Now, if you work in an office, you may want to close the door before you do that or people will think you're a little crazy. But do bounce and shake. It's really good for you. Now my next tip is to take short mental breaks throughout the day. And one of the best ways to do this is with meditation or focused awareness, often referred to as mindfulness. And you don't have to do it for very long to get a benefit from it. Even taking just one or two minutes to focus on your breathing and reduce the amount of chatter in what we call your monkey mind will help you to de stress and calm yourself. You can also take a short mindful walk outside and breathe in your surroundings, listen to some music, or even find something that makes you laugh. If you have an Amazon, Alexa or Echo, you could just say Alexa me a joke. I swear it says some of the dumbest jokes you've ever heard, but it's going to make you laugh. And by giving your mind these restful moments throughout the day, you will soothe your nervous system and allow yourself to gain a bit of distance and perspective on your thoughts so you can think more calmly, think more positively, and reduce the amount of pointless worrying that you probably are doing now. Another tip is to focus time each day on self care. When you're an ambitious goal setter, it's all too easy to forget to make time for yourself. And that can lead to burnout. So I encourage you to schedule time, literally schedule it in your calendar every week to relax and treat yourself. Now you can take a mental health day, or you could just set a couple hours aside to watch a fun movie, enjoy a bubble bath, take an online yoga class or just go to YouTube and find a meditation video and close your eyes and follow along. Or just take some time to read a great book. But whatever you need to do to deeply relax and rejuvenate, but schedule it in. And when you're no longer in lockdown, you can do things like go to a spa for a day or for an afternoon, schedule a massage, go for a hike, or sign up for a dance class. I promise you this will do wonders for your well being and give you the fresh energy you need to keep going. Now the last stress reducing tip I have for you is is the most important one of all. Learn to say no. When you're ambitious and you don't want to miss any opportunity with fear of missing out FOMO and you strive to meet or surpass everybody's expectations, it's hard to say no to opportunities that come your way. But that desire to say yes, it can quickly spiral into taking on way too much, which can lead to overwhelm into burnout. So to make sure this doesn't happen to you, you must become comfortable with saying no. NO to the activities, the requests, and the other time stealers that don't offer you a high payoff for the time and energy you have to invest in them. You see, highly successful and well balanced people say no all the time to projects, to unrealistic deadlines, to questionable priorities and other people's crises. And they view the decision to say no as equally acceptable as the decision to say yes. One response I found helpful in saying no to people is this. Look, I think your project's a great one. It's not against you that I'm saying no, it's for me. Or you could say I love you and I think what you're doing is great. But right now I'm focusing on completing my website and it needs every moment I have to get it done and get my online business launched on time. So let them know. It's not personal, it's simply what you're choosing to do to stay true to your goals. And remember this phrase, you've got to say no to the good so you can say yes to the great. Okay, now here's your homework that I want you to do after watching this video.

Pick one.

You know, pick one to three of the tips that I've talked about today that you want to start doing to reduce the level of stress in your life. And then after you've been implementing those tips steadily for a week or two, check in with yourself to see how they've impacted your stress levels and your productivity. If you did as I promised, you'll see positive results and take a moment to tell me what you plan to do in the comments below. Now, if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel. For more videos like this one, and for some additional resources on how to live a more balanced life, visit my website at jackcampfield.

Com.

Thanks again for watching.