Stress - The 7 C"s

In time for National Stress Awareness Day, here are the 7 C's behind stress and what you can do about them.
Stressor No.
1 - Poor COMMUNICATION

• Poor communication leads to misunderstanding, missed opportunities, bad feeling.
  
• Assertive communication helps deal with these.
  Learning good communication skills can help you at work and at home.
  

Stressor No.
2 - Lack of CAPABILITY

• If you have not been trained to do a job then is it fair to expect you to do it well?
• Give yourself the best possible chance to do well by getting the best possible training for the job in hand.
  

Stressor No.
3 - Lack of CAPACITY

• A lack of capacity to deal with day-today things can be overpowering and cause you to want to give up or walk away.
  
• This may be a case of needing to review your work life balance or getting yourself organised.
  
• It may be the case that you need to learn how to say "No.
  "
• Make sure you review where you are in your life, the things you want to keep and the things you want to walk away from.
  Now work out a plan to do just that.
  

Stressor No.
4 - Loss of CONTROL

• People get stressed about a situation because they feel out of control.
  
• Different people react in different ways to loss of control and will use different strategies to get back to a level of acceptable control for them.
  
• Learning how you react to loss of control and the strategies that you use, can help you to understand what you might do differently.
  

Stressor No.
5 - Dealing with CHANGE

• Many people don't like change and get very stressed as a result.
  
• The first steps to dealing with change is to accept it is inevitable and then deal with the consequences rather than the fact itself.
  
• Learn to embrace change so it doesn't scare you as much.
  

Stressor No.
6 - Resolving CONFLICT For those of us who don't like conflict, it can be a major source of stress.
Learning to deal with it can be a major benefit.
There are many ways of dealing with conflict, dependent on your situation.
Here are a few:

1. Don't take the bait.
   
2. Consider the underlying causes.
   Is it obvious why someone is upset?
3. Pause before you react.
   This will give you thinking time.
   
4. Check your own behaviour.
   Is it part of the problem?
5. Listen.
   
6. Acknowledge that they may be correct in part of their concern.
   
7. Be willing to negotiate if appropriate.
   
8. Remain assertive.
   
9. Stay in adult.
   
10. Look for warning and danger signs.
    
11. Check your distances.
    
12. Avoid competing.
    
13. Think Win/Win.
    
14. Be prepared to deal with emotion and anger.
    
15. Be aware, be alert.
    
16. Know your legal position.
    

Stressor No.
7 - Dealing with a CRISIS

• We all have to deal with crisis from time to time, whether it is personal or at work.
  Knowing how you are likely to react will help you plan on how to deal with things in the future.
  
• Crises can hit us at anytime.
  Illness, a death in the family, divorce, bad debt.
  Unfortunately they are all too common.
  And can really knock you for six when they happen.
  
• If you are dealing with a crisis, make sure that you have the support mechanisms in place to help you as much as possible,.
  This might include medical and legal professionals, friends and family, a coach or counsellor.