How do you handle the stress?

[Larry Turowski]

The latest one for me is my rehab contractor disappearing for 5 days.  He finally returned my calls today and said a family member out of state had tree fall on their roof.  He went to help fix it.

But I find I stress out about all sorts of things--evictions, tenant repair issues, going over budget, borrowing money, and on and on.

What stresses you and how do you deal with it?  Fortunately, for me, my wife wants to hear about it and talks some sense into me.

[Joel Owens]

What people need to know about STRESS is to set realistic expectations.

There is no such thing as no stress. You heard it here folks.

If you do not have money you worry about getting it. If you have lots of it you worry about the government taxing you and taking it all for redistribution " robin hood theory ".

If you have the money and the tax situation taken care of you worry about friends, family, your own mortality etc. Many people that have no money believe once they get it all the stress in their lives will go away and they will no longer have problems. It's just simply not true. Having money can help you to do more things in your life that you want which helps to make you happier. I have seen money destroy people also that cannot handle money well as it changes them in a bad way.

The point I am making is stress never goes away just mutates into something else based on where you are in your lifespan and success level.

NOW you can choose to deal with that stress in a positive way or a destructive way. That is something you have a choice over in your life.

A positive way is exercising, having healthy hobbies etc.

Destructive is addictive type problems like over eating, drinking, smoking, social disorders, doing drugs, compulsive gambling, infidelity etc. Taking pills in this country is a huge problem as people are masking the pain and not getting to the root of the issue because they do not want to face it.

A good rule of thumb I follow is 2 principals.

1.Pick you battles with your spouse or sig. other. If it's a small issue you are not that passionate about and you will not remember it 1 day or 1 week from now let it go. It might be more important to them and you giving in might help in the future when you have an important issue you want to stand your ground on. Pick a time and a place to talk about issues with money, life, etc. Then after the time is up drop it and save for the next time. If you constantly talk about problems you will have a problem relationship.

2. Think of HALT ( Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired). If you are feeling one or more of these then it is NOT the right time to be discussing and working through issues. All that will happen is a blow up with noise and nothing will be accomplished. It could actually make things worse as things are said that are hard to take back. I think about this when my wife wants to talk about things. If my business is busy or I am covered up etc. I will say let's discuss it later when we can dedicate the proper time to come up with a solution.