Stress Center Peer Support

I'm going to chunk this into more than 1 post so it doesn't look so overwhelming.

I had the privelage of learning about the importance of managing time from an outside source which I prefer not to mention and I found it extremely useful and I want to share this with others.

We all have things we need to get done and things we want to get done in order to feel good about ourselves and to survive in this world. I'm sure we've all done some "To Do" Lists and I bet after awhile most of us have just gotten so overwhelmed with the things we have to do...despite writing everything down. Or we would do these things but still not feel better about ourselves....but why?

Lets take the example of going on a trip. Here are some of the things you'd need for this.

-Get the documents for the passport
-Get passport photos
-Send the passport and photos to some place to get processed
-Figure out where you want to go
-Decide upon which hotel you would need to stay at
-Figure out the currency exchange rate for while you're down there so you can afford to buy things
-Figure out what activities you'd like to do
-Decide on the Travel Agency you'd like to go
-Then you gatta decide what clothing you'd like to bring with you.
-What CD's you'd want to bring with you
-You'd have to make sure you had enough batteries for the flight
-Who do you want to bring?
-If you have pets, You're going to have to figure out who is going to look after them while you're gone
-Will you need to bring you're self help things with you or not?
-How about a few vaccine shots?
-Who's going to take care of your job responsibilities while you're away?


That is just all the things i can think of and damn...I feel really overwhelmed just looking at this don't you? And this is suppose to be something fun...it looks so stressful. Does this really look motivating to do?

So if these to do lists don't work then what do we do? Well from what i was taught from this other source is that looking at What I need to do isn't going to give you that fulfilling feeling. Instead of asking yourself what do I need to do....Try asking yourself this, What is it that I want? Figure out what you want...

ie-I want to go on vacation and have some time to relax and enjoy myself.

Next, Why do you want it? (This is extremely important. What I was taught was that often in the beginning people can be really passionate about a goal but after a short while, it starts to feel like a chore and they lose intrest and eventually stop working on the goal. This is because they start looking at what do I need to get done instead of looking at what the purpose is.

So the purpose for the vacation is that it will help to decrease stress which is going to help me feel more at peace, my anxiety level will decrease greatly, I'll feel more connected with everything around me, I get to be more in the moment, I get to experience new things and this is going to help me feel more alive! I'm also going to feel very good simply because I'm taking time out to take care of myself and I know this is going to greatly improve my sense of self worth, my security and my self-esteem.

After that then you make a plan of what things will get you to achieve that purpose and you can make goals based on that.

Ie. Today I can get the passport documents, fill them out, get the photo done and mail everything in.
Tomorrow I can decide where I want to go and which hotel to stay at.


You may still have all those things in the list that you'd need in order to reach the outcome but you've broken it down so much that it is more manageable. Which one of the 2 methods would you prefer to do?

Breaking things down into groups is one of the keys here and actually we already do this with things such as telephone numbers. Take a look.

This is what a telephone number would normally look like 4169645836 and in that state it looks somewhat overwhelming...especially if you have an extension after it.

Now look at it in the way they break it down. (416)-964-5836, it's alot easier to remember and it doesn't seem to be as many numbers don't you agree? Why not use this for Goals?


Mike