Always Look for the Opportunity to Grow

All your efforts have finally paid off and you’ve achieved your dreams. Your business is now successful. You should be happy, but don’t stand still. A business should never stop growing.

Once it does, it becomes stagnant, and your success can become a failure. A stagnant business eventually has to shutter its doors. Think about all the retail stores that don’t exist any longer.

Or the businesses that didn’t keep up with changing trends or technology (hello, Blockbuster) and ended up having to declare bankruptcy before every store had to close.

If you want your business to remain successful, you have to always look for the opportunity to grow. That means that you need to automate things when it’s needed. How you began your business, such as doing everything by hand, won’t be effective once you see some success.

In order to stay relevant and keep on top of demand, you’ll have to automate. That may mean bringing in machines to a job. It may mean that instead of sending out emails or notices yourself, you sign up for automated software that will do it for you.

As your business grows, you can’t afford to be a one man show. You may need to bring in new people and create a team to help you with your tasks or to implement your business strategy.

If you insist on being too hands-on with your business, even as it grows to the point you find yourself struggling to keep up, you’ll start being unable to meet deadlines. Or you’ll end up sacrificing the quality of the service or product you provide.

You continually grow a business by taking care of the customers you already have while at the same time striving to bring in new ones. That means you should always look for opportunities to grow your customer service endeavors.

Look for ways that you can give value to your audience. This may mean something such as offering special incentives to repeat customers. Or when there’s a problem, you fix it with the mindset of taking the opportunity to learn how to salvage the relationship between the customer and your business.

Businesses who care about their customers’ needs and show it, are the ones that stay operational in tough times. Grow your business by engaging with customers. Build a relationship through the use of social media to solidify that relationship.

You can send out surveys, garner feedback and more. Look for opportunities to grow by doing things such as seeking out networking friends. When you network with others, you can find people to add to your team or to partner with, but you can also discover those who want to learn more about your business and may also turn into customers.

When it comes to growing your business, this means that you should grow on a personal level as well. Never stop learning new things in your niche. Stay up to date on the latest developments in your field and take part in growth activities in your area or online, such as creating a joint venture with someone else.

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The Powerful On The Spot ABC Coping Strategy

Every day there will be events that happen that test our resilience capacity. You get stuck in traffic, wake up late and have to rush the school or whatever else life throws at you. How you react is crucial to building up your resilience.

Cognitive restructuring (or changing the way we think during a stressful event) is the best method for managing stress at work, according to a "meta-study" published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
In this observation of studies, which focuses on techniques used to manage stress, cognitive restructuring was compared against other common "stress interventions" like deep breathing and relaxation.

The cognitive restructuring came out to be the best intervention of the lot. The findings suggested that "Cognitive restructuring promotes the development of proactive responses to stress." Put another way, it helps prevent stress.

Founded by Doctor Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, was this mindset reframing technique that gets people to dispute their negative self-talk and therefore use it to control their thinking during a stressful event.

What their research found is that most people the severity of a stressful event. Ellis liked to call this phenomenon: "stinking thinking." This way of thinking results in a common response like:

"I've got the worst job in the world."
"I'll never get all this work done on time."
"Why does this always happen to me."
"I'm a complete failure."

This negative thought process often clouds people's mindsets and leads to irrational and often completely false outcomes.

When we engage in this way of thinking, we are the ones who suffer. In essence, we become our own worst enemy for our often false recognition of the situation that's causing us to feel stressed. Ellis and Beck came up with a way to change our overly negative thinking that's as easy to remember as ABC or, in this case, A+B=C.
In this equation, the A stands for the Activating event (it's the source of stress). The B stands for your Beliefs (it's what you THINK or believe about the stress). The C stands for the Consequence or the result of A+B. (It's how you feel inside due to the stress plus your thoughts about it.)

Most people think that A = C, something happens to them like getting a flat type on the way to work and instantly the exaggerated negative thoughts make things a lot more stressful than they need to be. "This would only happen to me. Why does this always happen to me!"

Ellis suggests that if you notice that you are finding yourself adopting a negative thought process, you can challenge that that by infusing B (your belief system) and disputing that with another more objective, rational thought – "Ok, I've got a flat tyre, but this happens to millions of people every day, I'll phone work, explain what happened and wait for the AA to arrive to change it."

As a result, every time you challenge your belief system and use the ABC model technique, you will get better at it and build a little resilience. In time things that used to bother you don't bother you anymore

How Resilient Are You? Take The Test

To work on your resilient levels, you first develop an understanding of how your resilience looks right now. Below is an abbreviated version of the Nicholson McBride Resilience Questionnaire (NMRQ).

For each question, score yourself between 1 and 5, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Be completely honest: understanding the specific areas in which you lack resilience will enable you to get the most out of our 10 point booster plan

Resilience Questionnaire Score

1. In a difficult spot, I turn at once to what can be done to put things right __
2. I influence where I can, rather than worrying about what I can't influence __
3. I don't take criticism personally __
4. I generally manage to keep things in perspective __
5. I am calm in a crisis __
6. I'm good at finding solutions to problems __
7. I wouldn't describe myself as an anxious person __
8. I don't tend to avoid conflict __
9. I try to control events rather than being a victim of circumstances __
10. I trust my intuition __
11. I manage my stress levels well __
12. I feel confident and secure in my position __

Add up your total score and take a look at the resilience categories below to which one you fall into.
0 – 37
A developing level of resilience. Your score indicates that, although you may not always feel at the mercy of events, you would benefit significantly from developing aspects of your behaviour.
38 - 43
An established level of resilience. Your score indicates that you may occasionally have tough days when you can't quite make things go your way, but you rarely feel ready to give up.
44- 48
A strong level of resilience. Your above-average score indicates that you are pretty good at rolling with the punches, and you have an impressive track record of turning setbacks into opportunities.
49 -60
An exceptional level of resilience. Your score indicates that you are very resilient most of the time and rarely fail to bounce back – whatever life throws at you. You believe in making your luck.

Benchmarking your resilience levels allows you to see how things look right now while providing a framework for improvement (if any) in the future.

Easily Adapt to Change

Change is going to happen whether you like it or not. It’s something that constantly occurs in the business world. But not everyone handles change well. All of a sudden, the terms of service change on a platform - or technology changes.

So now everything is different. Some people flip out when this happens, while others flip out at even the thought of leaving the familiar behind. That’s because people get comfortable with what they know, and change threatens that comfort.

Plus, people worry that they won’t be able to handle whatever the change is that’s going to impact their business. They worry their skills or knowledge won’t be enough. But change is about growth or the cutting away of things that hold you back.

In today’s world, your business either evolves or it stands still. It can be difficult to face these changes when they’re happening, but as time goes on, you’ll discover that they were actually good for your business.

You need to learn how to adapt to change and move forward. Learn how to accept these changes calmly without losing it. See it as a good thing. Manage your thoughts. If you let your thoughts run wild, you’ll notice a pattern that goes hand in hand with change that you don’t want.

Your thoughts will lean toward all the bad “what-ifs” that may happen. What if this change causes you to lose clients/business/momentum? What if you can’t learn well enough to handle the change?

Those are some of the common thoughts that people have when change happens. What you have to realize is that it helps your business keep customers. Customers don’t always want the same old, same old.

They’re ready to try new and innovative things. If you don’t let your business embrace change, your competitor who will then gains your customers. Your business will become outdated and struggle to survive by refusing to accept change.

Realize the opportunities it brings to your business. For example, if you have to learn a new software, this can enhance the skills that you have to be able to market your business.

If you learn to adapt to change, it can help you create a business that thrives through growth. You’ll learn how to be able to handle any future changes easier as well. Embracing it can streamline your business.

You might have used an older system that you liked for getting information or products to customers. Then a new system had to be implemented and you were upset by that, but then later learned that the new system made the content or product delivery easier.

You can mentally prepare for change simply by altering your mindset. Look for what you stand to gain rather than what you think you’re going to lose. Focus on the improvements or the positive aspects that it will bring to your business.

Resilience Starts With Values

If you wanted to lose weight, get fitter and stronger, you would probably go about doing the following:
•Join a gym
•Lift weights
•Walk more
•Cook more nutritious meals
•Rinse and repeat

As a result, over time, you would probably start to see definition in various body parts, more energy levels and better health markers all around. It doesn't happen overnight. However, you have to put in the work to see the benefits. Not only that, you have to keep putting in the work to keep those benefits.

Similarly, building mental resilience is no different. Just like you need to learn proper technique to exercise effectively in the gym, learning the "mental techniques" allows you to build your resilience capacity and mental strength.

An important part of this is identifying your values. Previous research findings suggest that aligning with personal values helps people be more resilient in the face of stressful situations. For example, according to resilient school leaders, the process of "privately clarifying, publicly articulating, and consciously acting on" core values is a great source of strength in helping them face adversity and emerge stronger than before (Patterson and Kelleher, Resilient School Leaders. 2005, p. 51).

Another study by Creswell and colleagues (2005) showed that reflecting on personal values buffered physiological and psychological stress responses during a laboratory stress challenge.

In essence, values provide a reason to keep going which is a cornerstone in becoming more resilient. For example, if "providing" and "safety" was an important value for you and you lost your job, it's easier to move quickly and seek out other jobs because you're aligning with your core values. The values themselves act as motivators.

Identifying values
Your values are the things that you consider to be important in life, such as leading, kindness, safety, freedom, helping others and so on. Let's start with a value affirmation task to align the values that are important to you and which you can harness during challenging periods in your life.

Step 1: Describe a stressful life event

Grab a piece of paper or pull out the notes app on your phone and take a moment to consider a challenging area in your life that is currently taking place. For example, you may have recently lost your job because of a pandemic or perhaps your partner has there is more pressure on you finically to provide for your family. Briefly, write down what this stressful life event is.

Step 2: List reasons to come out the other side

Consider why it is worth it to you to keep going and get through this stressful, challenging period in your life. For example, getting through the challenge of losing a job and securing a new job may show your kids that overcoming adversity should be embraced, and therefore you have shown this by being a role model to them. They might see you as a "hero" as a result. Write down as many reasons as you can.....

Best Stress Relieving Exercises

It is okay to feel wrecked under extreme pressure. Does a pint of your favorite ice cream or junk snack help you simmer down? That’s unfortunate since you are doing more harm than good. Stress is rightly a double-edged sword. While being a tad under pressure boosts your efficiency and alertness, being overly strained makes you dull and unproductive.

The human body is designed to cope with stress in a particular way. It releases hormones to battle the blues against the so-called stressors. However, when you are too pressurized or the stress is staggering, your system’s hormonal balance goes for a toss.

This is when chronic health conditions strike in. Diabetes, cardiovascular irregularities, ulcers, and even the big C. Why just your health? Too much anxiousness ruin your emotional well-being. You feel depressed for no reason. Sobbing becomes a part of your regular day. People also turn aggressive and hot-headed. All these awful traits because of stress.

Snacking on junk hardly comes of help. It does make you feel slightly better. But, the merry feeling lasts for a very short time. The list of odds doesn’t end here. Foods brimming with sugar and calorie wreck your health. Watch your weight scale up in a spry.

Little did you know that snacking right and working out every day work wonders instead. Exercising boosts the release of natural endorphins that curbs down the feeling of dejection and stress. You start feeling a lot lighter and cheerful instead.

Which exercises can help battle anxiety?

1. Brisk walking - As easy as it sounds, walking is greatly effective in reducing anxiousness in individuals. Shelling out time to hit the gym might seem like a tedious task amid your bustling lives. Regular walking does the trick and is super easy to fit into a busy day. A 45-minutes long walk day-in-day-out can keep stress and depression at bay.

2. Swimming - The drill surely is on the list of the best cardio. Swimming frequently helps you maintain fitness and good health.

Are you wondering if swimming has any positive effect on stressed nerves? It certainly does a world of wonders to a bothered mind. Being submerged in cool water is extremely relaxing. It helps you cool off and repose, particularly when you are stressed with a lot on your plate. Since the density of water is way thicker than air, swimming stands out as a powerful full-body workout. A fitter and gleeful you is a less depressed you.

3. Dancing - It is no secret that we all love to tap our toes to good beats when we are excited and happy. Whenever you feel downhearted and anxious, always try dancing. It is a miraculous trick that wards out sadness quickly.

4. Jogging - A good jogging session is very promising. Along with toxins, you also sweat out your worries and stress. The physical drill is laborious but truly rejuvenating. You start feeling centered, active and fit, both mentally and physically in a very short span of time.

5. High-intensity workouts - If you are blessed with the means and place to perform high-intensity drills, go for it. A promising mix of aerobics and strength-based workout, HIIT helps you channelize your stress for a favorable purpose. You work out to enhance your physique and stamina. However, indulging in intense training saves you from feeling sunk and depressed.

Pair your everyday cardio with calming breathing exercises for best results in reducing anxiety.

Tips To Deal With Stress At Work

In the hustle and bustle of life, everyone is familiar with stress. Sadly, it builds up with time and circumstances. You are not struck down with overwhelming anxiousness right from the start. If you realize the underlying causes that activate the feeling of being dejected and restless, it is easy to cope with stress.

Bear in mind, your career will always be demanding. Responsibilities will only scale up with time. The bills won’t stop pouring in. Neither will you be rewarded with extra hours in a day to wrap up all chores. Stress is inevitable for all and sundry.

Sticking around with resilience under pressure or taking charge of your emotions will not be easy to learn. Instead of caving in to the drawbacks of feeling stressful and downhearted, practice effective ways to fight stress.

With stress, there’s definitely no cap limit. Leave it unchecked and you will soon be a patient of long-standing chronic depression. There’s no denying that too much anxiety is risky for your mental health and your physical well-being. However, experiencing some amount of stress is befitting. When you are under pressure, you start thinking on your toes. You are more watchful of your surroundings and circumstances. Most importantly, you strategize steps to battle the odds of a situation.

Tips to put an end to stress and experience solace

1. Don’t keep your schedule crammed

At work, it is no surprise that you mostly have your plates full. Keeping track of a jammed schedule is too difficult. The worst part, you struggle hard to tick things off the crammed to-do list. When you list fewer works to accomplish, you feel relatively less rushed and at peace. When you have too many fishes to fry, you lose your sanity and control.

2. Exercising for blooming health is key

An anxious and strained mind impacts your physical health. Exercising every now and then works wonders in keeping your mind clear of stress. The perks of staying in shape are not unknown. You don’t have to hit the gym or wrap up intense cardio to feel the difference. A few minutes of brisk walking can leave you feeling light and in solace.

3. Good hours of sleep work wonders

The importance of quality and undisturbed sleep is rarely realized. Poor sleep impairs the mental well-being of an individual. It has an adverse effect on your health too. Therefore, it is imperative to work on your sleeping schedule. Troubled sleep or a cat’s nap is no good. Listen to relaxing podcasts, meditate, or do anything to relish a good night’s sleep. You wake up feeling fresh and brimming with energy.

4. Try your hands in some new hobbies

Don’t give up on your hopes and life, just because you feel low and dejected. Channel that overwhelming stress into a fun activity or a hobby that keeps you hooked. Although it is a distraction but is certainly a good one.

5. Social meets are supportive

Anxiety and distress can throw you off your socializing skills, sooner than you think. Do not keep the issues bothering you, all to yourself. Confide in your dear ones and communicate with people.

Stress snacking, zoning out, constantly procrastinating things, substance abuse, and resorting to sleeping pills to snooze off are unhealthy coping mechanisms. Dwindling down stress is easy when you adhere to the promising tips.

Can Stress Be Good?

Will it surprise you to know that stress can sometimes be good? Of course, a teeny amount of stress and not staggering pressure. Sure, it is difficult to feel positive and see the silver lining when you are sinking under pressure. But, being slightly strained rewards you with a world of favors.

Does that mean you stop doing anything about your mental blocks and issues that leave you frazzled? No!
Feeling overly stressful is dangerous. You are prone to slip into depression. Symptoms of chronic anxiety show up. You put on weight, start binging on unhealthy snack options, sense your heart throbbing, feel backed down and undetermined to do any work, and a lot more. The ghastly impacts of stress are monumental.

There’s no way you can survive without stress. Think about it - don’t you feel restless when you toil hard all day every day? Isn’t it hard to succumb to the challenges of relationships? Stress is inevitable in life. You can never kiss goodbye to feeling low and dejected. But, the right amount of stress can push you and transform you into a healthier and better person. Wondering how?

The disparity between good stress and formidable pressure

Start by understanding the pressure and strain that brings the best in you. Don’t give in to emotional abuse or restlessness. Did you know that human bodies are exquisitely wired and set up to respond to stressful feels? When a little pressure steeps in, the natural defense mechanism in your body activates. It does good for your body and amps up your mental well-being.

On the contrary, when you are struck down with overwhelming stress, it is more of a disorder that needs immediate treatment. The normal stressors in your system stop responding. Your mind and body are plagued with disappointment, sadness, and depression. This is the bad stress that soon amplifies into a chronic mental condition. It is essential to figure out ways to put your mind at ease.

Surprising perks of good stress

Now that you know that a scanty amount of stressful experience can do you good, are you still a little muddled? Let’s put an end to your confusion. Here’s how stress can be befitting for you.

1. Spiked cognitive abilities

Slight brief moments of stress encourage the stem cells in the brain to pave the way for newly regenerated cells. Of course, the organ functions a lot better and it stretches your cognitive abilities. You can think clearly and experience enhanced performance at work.

Don’t you believe in the fact? Well, why don’t you indulge in some self-evaluation? You shall see that your performance is exceptional and quicker when you are slightly under stress.

2. Stress preps you to be a hard nut to crack

Being stressed out consumes your mind, makes you worked up, and emotionally fragile. However, feeling downhearted for some amount of time shows you the ropes of how important is happiness or peace of mind. You step up and become a stronger and more resilient person. You develop an improved sense of control in your emotions. That’s not it! You transform into a tough cookie.

3. Stress ups your immunity

Not many are aware but a little stress can reward you with amped-up immunity. Here’s how it works. When you are under moderate pressure, the stress hormones in your system boost the secretion of interleukins. It is a natural body chemical that works wonders in stepping up the immune system. Who knew that good stress can be a natural remedy to dodge a bad cold?

Why Is Managing Stress So Important?

Are you often picked on for your behavior? Flaring up out of the blue, sudden mood swings, and whatnot. Not sure what triggers the odd functioning of your mind? Maybe it is stress.

Don’t be worried! You are not a lone sufferer. Almost everyone in the world eats, inhale, and lives stress. It is the most definite part of the buzzing lives today. Did you know that stress can ruin your physical well-being? If you are surprised to watch your weight scale up for no good reason, stress could be a burning cause. You could be putting up with insomnia and menacing blood pressure fluctuation. Stress causes more damage than you know.

So yes, it is absolutely essential to learn how to keep a check on your stress and keep it from scoring up. Don’t have high hopes thinking you could cherish a stress-free existence. Regardless of how calm or hassle-free your life appears, you will always be frazzled with something.

Stress is not all bad. A teeny bit amount of stress can make you a smart, responsible, and productive person. However, being overly stressed is a big ‘NO.’

Why is it crucial to battle down stress?

It is no surprise that stress affects your health and mental well-being largely. Little did you know that stress can aggravate and lead to serious issues like depression and chronic anxiety, sooner than you think. Here are a few reasons explaining why is it essential to dwindle the stress in life.

1. Workplace

There is rarely a job place that is stress-free. The hustle is real and the issues keep mounting. There is no way you can sigh in relief when you are a part of the rat race. With that said, here are the odds you seldom realize:

*A serious cut-back in productivity
*Aggressive behavior that tampers your relationship with co-workers
*Your efficiency sees a massive decline.

Stress makes it impossible to hit the easy streets, regardless of how hard-working you are. Not caving in to being downhearted and distressed is a need of the hour.

2. Socializing traits

An overly depressed person is never great at mingling or hanging out with loved ones. Being good at forming and safeguarding relationships is necessary. If you believe that you are your own best company round-the-clock, there might be an underlying problem you are choosing to skip. This will certainly get worse with time.

Managing stress is key. Failure to do so will impact your relationship with others.

3. Physical health

There’s no denying that stress slams down your health condition in quantifiable ways. From cardiac problems and ulcers to insulin resistance, impotency, and whatnot, anxiety, and stress are the root cause of multiple health problems.

If you successfully master the trick of controlling stress, you can live a blooming fit life.

4. Journey to being a good parent

Parenting is an overwhelming and hard-won job. The worst bit - you are hardly appreciated for your efforts. Feeling under pressure and dismayed with yourself is very common. However, ruling out such feelings and emotions of being low is just as important. If not, you will snap out unnecessarily and scare your child.

A responsible parent sows good traits in their children. If you are successful at managing stress, your children will learn how to ward out depression early in life.

5 Steps To Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

One of the quickest ways to have problems with your emotional health is to take it for granted.
These days, many of us don’t pay as much attention to our emotional health as we should, whether it is because we undervalue it, focus on other things, or figure that if it was bad enough to worry about we would notice it.

The problem with this, is that emotional health problems don’t always come on all of a sudden. While a sudden trauma might upset your mental health in a hurry, problems are more often caused by gradual changes.

When change happens gradually, we are more likely to assume that things have always been that way, who can lead to potential problems going unaddressed. That’s why it’s important to practice emotional awareness all the time, not just when we already think that something is already wrong.

1.Ask Yourself How You Are Feeling

Being aware of our own emotions can be very similar to being aware of other people’s emotions. In addition to making us more able to avoid stress by making us more aware of emotional repercussions to various circumstances, we can check our own emotional wellness in much the same way that we the check emotional wellness of others: by asking.

When other people ask you how you are doing, it can be most efficient and polite to just say “okay” or “fine” but if you literally ask yourself you may reply with something a little more informative.
You don’t have to carry on a whole conversation with yourself, but if you ask yourself “How are you doing?” and you respond with “Well, I've been better,” it might be something to spend more time thinking about.

2.Be More Comfortable Talking About Your Own Feelings

Etiquette may have gotten in the way of our emotional awareness in another way: it keeps us from talking about ourselves, which may keep us from thinking about ourselves.

Consider stating how you feel with statements like “I’m glad to hear that,” or “that makes me frustrated.” This kind of talking about your own feelings helps you focus and think more about how you feel and how you react to things, but it also will help other people to understand how you are feeling.

It's important to keep focused on the topic, however, as it can be carried away. When your “I’s” get too close together it can become rude, but it may also distort your outlook and lead you to think about yourself too much.

3.Practice Mindfulness

Another great way to stay aware of your emotional wellness is through mindfulness.
This practice encourages you to be aware of your thoughts and feelings, as well as how they make you feel physically, particularly through tense muscles and changed breathing.

 Many of these practices also include exercises that teach you to control your breathing and relax your muscles to decrease your level of stress and increase your emotional health.

Fortunately, mindfulness is increasing in popularity these days, so the internet is full of quality resources and mobile apps full of information and tools.

If you are concerned about trusting these resources, or just want to be sure that you are finding the best available resources, consider talking to your primary care provider about your interest in learning more about mindfulness.

While not all doctors are likely to be experts in the field, most will be able to give you helpful advice in furthering your own research.

4.Meditate

Many people are reluctant to get into meditation because it often has religious connotations. While the oldest forms of meditation are explicitly religious, more modern forms of meditation focus exclusively on the secular benefits of meditation.

Related to but slightly different from mindfulness, mediation involves taking a part of the day, as little as a few minutes, to clear your mind.

Clearing your mind can bring its own benefits, although it is very difficult. Recognizing what thoughts or feelings make it difficult to clear your mind can help you to recognize which things in your life are giving you the most trouble.

As was the case with mindfulness, there are a lot of great resources online regarding meditation, but the best place to start may be a friendly conversation with your primary care provider.

5.Write

Many people who write fiction find that they include aspects of their own lives in their stories and characters. Writing yourself, especially fiction, can help you to express your feelings in a safe and healthy way,

but re-reading your own work can also help you to see your own experiences from a new perspective. This can help you to understand your feelings and can allow you to identify creative solutions to your problems.