New Year, New ‘Tude! 5 Suggestions For a Less-Stressful Year Ahead

It’s natural to look back on a year and reflect upon what happened - the successes and lessons learned when things didn’t go as well as expected. It’s a time to assess your performance as you navigated through the weeks and months that made up the year. Where did you score - and where did you drop the ball? And perhaps the most important question: How was your mindset throughout it all - the ups and the downs?

Based on such reflection, you may resolve to improve upon some things going forward. That’s a great way to ensure greater success in the new year. While you’re planning your strategy, remember that lowering your stress level across the board is among the biggest wins you could achieve. In addition to being a threat to your physical health, stress can cause you to be generally off your game. A stressed business owner tends to make poor decisions and lack mental acuity and patience. Maybe adopting a fresh attitude in the new year is just what is needed to help lessen the stress of operating your business.

Here are some suggestions to try to lessen your stress in the year ahead:

1. Be flexible and less attached to outcome. So much stress is caused internally by rigid adherence to a certain scenario playing out. Of course you want your plans to succeed, but when they don’t, recognize the benefits of the results you did achieve. Enjoy the process of achieving your goals and whatever comes of your efforts. The "all or nothing" mindset breeds disillusionment and dissatisfaction which, in turn raises your overall stress level, robbing you of a sense of accomplishment.
2. Set more short-range goals. You’re the boss because of your ability to make big things happen. But big things often take a lot of time to come to fruition, meaning that a sense of fulfilment is far off. Rather than waiting for the big "ta-da!" when your enormous undertaking is complete, give yourself some quick-turnaround goals that you can look forward to and that will provide much-needed mental and emotional boosts to fend off stress.
3. Examine and adjust your work/life balance. It’s said that no one on their deathbed regrets not working more. Are you spending enough time living your life and recreating? Overwork is stressful in and of itself because in doing so, you’re neglecting your own needs for non-work experiences. Spending time fueling yourself will lead to a more focused, effective, less-stressed executive life.
4. Ask for help and delegate. When you believe that asking for help (and not doing it all yourself) are signs you’re an unfit leader, your pride is bringing you down. Seeking assistance is in fact a sign of strength and recognition of your own human-sized existence. Those who take on everything bring undue stress upon themselves. They’re also introducing unnecessary drama into the workflow which, you guessed it, is stressful.
5. Keep your work in perspective by aligning it with your values. There’s little as stressful as when your work and your values are misaligned. Consider what truly ignites your energy and creativity. Make sure to prioritize that which brings you a personal sense of fulfilment to avoid feeling as though you’re working out of a sense of duty only. That’s an empty mission that’s sure to bring with it a stressful sense of dread.

It’s easy to passively accept that stress is part and parcel of your role as a businessperson. There is, however, no reason to live with more stress than you have to. These suggestions can help you recognize some of the stress you may have normalized and start the new year on a less-stress path.

What stressors could you eliminate in the year ahead?