I spoke recently to a large group of employees of a company in Missouri. The topic was change and how we deal with it.

As we discussed the stress that accompanies change, one of the participants frantically blurted out in front of the whole group, "Curt, I am ready to totally fall apart. I don`t know if I can go on."

She was dead serious.

Even though it was somewhat awkward, I dealt with the problem right there by asking her what she was responsible for between the time she got off work and her bedtime. She quickly listed 15 things. I asked her how many of those things she HAD to do. When we closely looked at the list, she whittled it down to six. Most of the duties were of the "I should" variety. We cut those out right now. She sighed deeply and responded as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It seemed as though I had given her permission to simplify, to say no.

The late, great Vince Lombardi once said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." Continual stress leaves us totally drained both physically and emotionally. What do cowards do? They quit, they don`t try anymore, they become ineffective. Prolonged stress will do that to you and to me if we allow it to. However, you are in control of how you view things, of how you react. It is a choice that you make. You see there is great hope in winning the battle over stress, but we have to be willing to make changes, we have to believe that we can win!! We must do things because we want to do them, not because some one says we SHOULD DO THEM.

A medical expert on stress told me that when the body is under stress it produces six chemicals, all of which are unnatural to our systems. One can only imagine the harm that is done when the body is under stress for a long period of time. You do not have to expose yourself to that much stress. Listen my dear people and take control of the time that is yours. There is tremendous HOPE for you to win over stress everyday, one day at a time, but you will have to exercise control.

I guarantee that you will deal with stress more effectively if you do the following:

• List your activities and responsibilities and prioritize them.
• Carefully cross off those things which you don`t have to do.
• Drop those activities immediately. Yes, drop them. Stop them. Take charge!!
• Relax and enjoy the freedom. You are starting the healing process!!