It’s been a wild ride the past few weeks, with class, work deadlines, travel and generally running around like a crazy lady! I’m long over-due for a good butt-kicking at the gym, to help me mitigate the stress I’ve been feeling recently. So, I figured, why not share some of my tips to handle stress, in exchange, hopefully, for some of your tips?

Leave it all on the track. I’ve found that when I’m stressed, I usually need a good, long run. Granted, about 3 miles in, I’m about done with the run, so it doesn’t have to be THAT long of a run. Either way, my motto is, “leave it all on the track”, meaning you should run, lift, cycle, swim, or generally exert yourself until you’re physically too tired to care about the stress of the day. I don’t mean hurt yourself, but get to the point that you’ve got to focus on your breathing, leaving you zero focus for your stress. Currently, I’m very wound up because I haven’t had a good work out in almost 2 weeks! I’m going to spend at least 4 nights in the gym during my two week hiatus from class before summer school starts.

Give yourself some space. You ever notice that you’ll stare at the same paper you wrote, trying to find typos and grammatical errors, only to have a peer take a quick glance and find a ton of mistakes? When you work on something for too long, you start to lose perspective. It seems counter-intuitive, but I’ve found that sometimes it’s best to walk away, and give yourself time to focus on something else (like breathing while running, see point above!). Sometimes we just need to let our minds have a little room to work out a problem, like the “aha” moments in the shower. It’s not that the shower imbues magical analytical skills, but it does allow your mind to “roam”. During the “roaming” process, you might just stumble on a solution. I’ve found that when I’m stressed, it’s helpful to physically walk away from my work to allow my mind time to roam and re-focus for better productivity when I return to a project.

Health, it does a body good. I’m terrible about not sleeping enough or eating properly when I’m stressed, which makes me feel gross, which leads to lower productivity, which causes the cycle to start all over again! While you may think that using every minute of every day to finish your projects will reduce your stress, taking time to let your body rest will actually improve your productivity in the long run, which reduces your stress level. Also, drinking plenty of water and eating a balanced meal will improve your focus. Further, when your body feels good and operates efficiently, you’ll feel like you’re making more progress throughout the day. Good ‘ole sleep and nutrition do wonders for my stress level!

So, while I attempt to follow my own advice, maybe you have found some other helpful hints. I’ll be hitting the gym and going to bed early, will you?

I attended my brother’s college graduation this past weekend, and I had a few moments to remember back to my college graduation. I was looking forward at the adult life, career, getting married, going forward with a whole chapter…. then, I fell flat on my face in the career department. The marriage and the adult life worked out great, but the career was pretty much in the toilet! In the three years since graduation, the marriage and adult life are better than ever, and the career is finally on the up-swing. I’m gaining a lot of knowledge and experience in several different areas of marketing, and I’m well on my way to getting my MBA. So, how did I get here, and what did I learn along the way?

The paths we walk are winding. I never thought I’d end up where I am after the twisty path I took. I started out as a musical theater major at a small (think smaller than my high school!) liberal arts college in Arkansas. After a series of unfortunate events, and coming to terms with the fact that I was not, in reality, going to be a Broadway star, I transferred to a large state school and tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I finally found marketing, but when I moved to California just as the market crashed, I found out that no one really wanted to hire a marketer. I had recruiters and decision-makers tell me that I was in the worst possible geographic area for my skill set, that 3 years ago I would’ve been the perfect candidate, and that no one could afford to hire a marketer full-time. It was discouraging to say the least, and I ended up job-hunting in my home state of Texas, since we have a much more diversified business community. After all that, I’ve learned that there’s rarely a straight shot to the “dream job”. Sometimes you have to take jobs you don’t like, use skills you haven’t fully developed, and consider options that seem to come out of the blue.

Be flexible. Since the paths we walk are winding, you’ve got to be flexible! When I graduated college, I had it all planned out: the type of job and product, the size of the company, the dress code… basically, I thought I was going to get the dream job. Sure, I pretended to scale it down to “reality”, but the truth is, I had a rigid set of criteria that I HAD to follow. Wrong! I ended up working for a start-up (not my idea of a great environment), in a super casual office (not my idea of a good dress code), and the manufacturing industry (not my idea of of the perfect product). However, as ridiculous as that job was, I did learn a lot about how things probably shouldn’t go the next time around. I also took freelancing opportunities to dabble in some areas that I hadn’t learned about in school. In short, I finally decided to just walk the path that was available, instead of sitting still until I could go straight to my “destination”.

The new wears off. Now that I’m in a much more suitable job, pursuing my master’s, and living life like a normal person, I’ve come to realize that the “new” wears off. Everything isn’t a bright shiny toy like I thought it would be. And you know what? It’s kind of awesome being in a routine of productivity! I am starting to realize that the job isn’t all there is to life, and that sometimes a lazy weekend at home with my husband is just as good as the high from a crazy day at the office. Don’t get me wrong, I like to have a rush from a deadline at work, and I’m still striving to make those deadlines bigger and faster. But I think we all believe life is like a movie, and I’ve found that once the new wears off, you’ve got to have a strong foundation underneath to make life worthwhile.

Watching the graduates this weekend made me quite introspective about where I’ve been and where I’m going, and I think I’ve grown and matured a lot over the past 3 years. It also made me look forward to the day that I don another cap and gown to attend my graduation ceremony from the master’s program, and once again move forward with bright-eyed enthusiasm. I’m glad to say, though, that I’m pretty satisfied with the present!