Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Stress & Stress Management
What is stress? And where dose stress come from?
In physical sense, stress is associated with the tightening of mussels, thirstiness of the mouth, cramping of the stomach and many other body malfunctioning. When a person is stressed, he/she becomes restless, exhibits mood change and may become irrational.
Everybody experience stress at some time of his/her life. Some experience stress more than the other. We get stressed from school homework, from examination, from work assignment, from relationship issue and from everywhere and everything.
Though some minority may say that they work best under stress (perhaps a little stress), majority may agree that stress generally reduces a person’s ability to perform leading to the reduction in quality and quantity of output. Therefore, it is important that we need to have a strategy to counter the stress, or simply, we need to understand the source of stress and learn how to manage it better.
Why there is so much stress everywhere, every time? A common cause of stress is what I call “THE GREAT EXPECTATION”. This form of stress often arises from unrealistic demand for one to perform. An employee feels the stress when his superior demands excessive out output and or demands him to meet unrealistic deadline. A student feels the stress when the teachers and parents demand that he/she performs excellent in the coming examination. An ordinary person feels the stress when family and community places excessive demand that exceeds the ability of an individual to cope.
It is generally accepted that this external source of stress cannot be eliminated. However, there are ways where we can minimise the effect of such stress. We can acquire new skill and improve competency in work so we can perform better. We can have better management and plan our activities in better way to minimise wastage of time so we can have more time to study for our examination or to do the required work. We can maintain regular exercise to keep our body healthy so we can think better and have more energy to tackle all those difficult tasks. Or simply, we need to constantly improve our mind and body.
However, it has often been overlooked that there is another source of stress generated by an individual self. This is what I call the "SELF INFLICTED STRESS" Someone says: “Stress is the difference between what you think the world should be and what the world actually is.” This means that stress can be caused by oneself depending on his/her viewpoint.
When driving on the road, we get stressed because other drivers do not drive in a manner we expected. We expect other drivers to behaviour better but we are unable to change their driving behavior. We expect a certain job to be done better but the outcome does not appear to be so. We have high expectation of an event outcome or a better standard of performing a task. The reality is we are unable to achieve the target due to our own shortcomings or the inability of others to perform. We are stressed because our expectations are not met.
In today’s OVER stressed society, are we setting too high a standard, which really cannot be achieved. Are we expecting too much from others or from anything?
In physical sense, stress is associated with the tightening of mussels, thirstiness of the mouth, cramping of the stomach and many other body malfunctioning. When a person is stressed, he/she becomes restless, exhibits mood change and may become irrational.
Everybody experience stress at some time of his/her life. Some experience stress more than the other. We get stressed from school homework, from examination, from work assignment, from relationship issue and from everywhere and everything.
Though some minority may say that they work best under stress (perhaps a little stress), majority may agree that stress generally reduces a person’s ability to perform leading to the reduction in quality and quantity of output. Therefore, it is important that we need to have a strategy to counter the stress, or simply, we need to understand the source of stress and learn how to manage it better.
Why there is so much stress everywhere, every time? A common cause of stress is what I call “THE GREAT EXPECTATION”. This form of stress often arises from unrealistic demand for one to perform. An employee feels the stress when his superior demands excessive out output and or demands him to meet unrealistic deadline. A student feels the stress when the teachers and parents demand that he/she performs excellent in the coming examination. An ordinary person feels the stress when family and community places excessive demand that exceeds the ability of an individual to cope.
It is generally accepted that this external source of stress cannot be eliminated. However, there are ways where we can minimise the effect of such stress. We can acquire new skill and improve competency in work so we can perform better. We can have better management and plan our activities in better way to minimise wastage of time so we can have more time to study for our examination or to do the required work. We can maintain regular exercise to keep our body healthy so we can think better and have more energy to tackle all those difficult tasks. Or simply, we need to constantly improve our mind and body.
However, it has often been overlooked that there is another source of stress generated by an individual self. This is what I call the "SELF INFLICTED STRESS" Someone says: “Stress is the difference between what you think the world should be and what the world actually is.” This means that stress can be caused by oneself depending on his/her viewpoint.
When driving on the road, we get stressed because other drivers do not drive in a manner we expected. We expect other drivers to behaviour better but we are unable to change their driving behavior. We expect a certain job to be done better but the outcome does not appear to be so. We have high expectation of an event outcome or a better standard of performing a task. The reality is we are unable to achieve the target due to our own shortcomings or the inability of others to perform. We are stressed because our expectations are not met.
In today’s OVER stressed society, are we setting too high a standard, which really cannot be achieved. Are we expecting too much from others or from anything?
Friday, August 19, 2005
Risk Management Made Simple
We were on holiday in a foreign land. At this particular instant, I was alone at this place called Little Venice in London (not in Italy) and I was taking photograph of the lovely Jason Canal. An old lady walked past. We smiled at each other and mentioned that the weather was fine. Knowing that I was a tourist, she then insisted that she would take a picture of me with the lovely canal as background using my camera. I knew it was pointless as I noticed her hands were trembling a bit. Nevertheless, I did not want to disappoint her for her very generous offer of service. I handed over the camera to her and happily posted for her. This was a digital camera and as I expected, the photo turned out to be very poor. Nevertheless, I thanked her for a photo well taken. She was happy.
Two week later, we were in Rome. At the Trevi Fountain, a young man was seated intimately with a young girl. The place was crowded. As we were near the fountain taking a photo, the young man immediately offer his service to take a picture of my wife and me using my camera. I politely refused telling him that I have taken many photos and I have enough. At the Roman Coliseum, we received the same offer from a middle-aged man pushing baby pram. The baby in the pram looked more like a doll than a baby.
Again, I declined politely with the same reason.
So why I handed over my camera for an old lady who could not even take a proper photo while I refused services from the more competent younger persons? The reason is obvious. It is my risk management at work. In the two later incidents, it was very easy for any of them to run away with my camera and disappear into the crowd. As for the old lady, I first thought at least I could run faster than her. Though it turned out that she was really nice.
Two week later, we were in Rome. At the Trevi Fountain, a young man was seated intimately with a young girl. The place was crowded. As we were near the fountain taking a photo, the young man immediately offer his service to take a picture of my wife and me using my camera. I politely refused telling him that I have taken many photos and I have enough. At the Roman Coliseum, we received the same offer from a middle-aged man pushing baby pram. The baby in the pram looked more like a doll than a baby.
Again, I declined politely with the same reason.
So why I handed over my camera for an old lady who could not even take a proper photo while I refused services from the more competent younger persons? The reason is obvious. It is my risk management at work. In the two later incidents, it was very easy for any of them to run away with my camera and disappear into the crowd. As for the old lady, I first thought at least I could run faster than her. Though it turned out that she was really nice.
