Howdy folks!
My newsletter last month about what to do when times are tough seemed to resonate with a lot of you — thank you to everyone who commiserated or shared their stories with me!
So today I’m following up with some more takeaways:
- 10 essential practices to beat stress
Let’s do it!
As I mentioned last month, it’s been a rough year. And the big takeaway for me was: always save room for inspiring work.
But there’s more to the picture than that. Because even when you put 5% of your time into stuff that charges you up, you’ve still gotta get through that other 95%.
So while I’ve been riding the chaos this year, I’ve learned a few tactics to deal with stress better.
Here are 10 things that have worked for me:
(Some of them may be obvious, but it doesn’t make them wrong!)
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1. Find people you can FULLY open up to.
The key question: do you have people you can cry in front of? Personally, I haven’t gone the therapist route, but I have people around me who fill that role.
As a man, that can be difficult. But you need a place to let it all out. Keeping it bottled up is a fast track to getting overwhelmed.
Find the person who’ll listen and keep your secrets.
2. Don’t pretend it doesn’t suck.
Here in the US, we’ve adopted the British “stiff upper lip” mentality—just grind through it.
Now let’s be real: stress sucks. But in our culture, if you’re a leader or a CEO, you're supposed to pretend it doesn't. Even as a father or mother, you’re supposed to show that it doesn’t affect you. And pretty soon, you don’t even want to acknowledge it to yourself.
Don’t fall into that trap. Acknowledge that it’s tough. Accepting that will help you deal with it better. Don’t kid yourself that everything is fine when it’s clearly not.
3. Eat well.
Stress can lead to terrible eating habits. For me, it was just coffee and chocolate on some days. (I know… One cigarette away from going full European.) Unsurprisingly, that didn’t help me feel any better.
My wife pointed out that I was eating like crap and not fueling my body. And she was right. When I started eating a balanced diet—fruits, veggies, all that good stuff—it made a huge difference in how I handled my stress.
4. Sleep well.
When you’re dealing with a lot, a good night’s sleep is more important than ever. But I’ve noticed that stress messes with my sleep more than anything else. You wake up at 2 a.m. with your head spinning, right?
I use a sleep tracker (Whoop) to monitor my rest because, without good sleep, everything else falls apart. That way I can see if I’m way under-rested, and prioritize getting some shut-eye.
If you’re stressed, prioritize sleep like it’s your job.
5. Exercise—but not too much.
Exercise helps with stress, but here’s the thing: don’t overdo it. With too much on your mind, it’s tempting to exhaust yourself just to drown things out. I made that mistake this year by working out too much, and it just made me more tired and anxious.
Your goal should be to set yourself up to be the most capable you can be, in body, mind, and spirit. Keep moving, but don’t exhaust yourself to the point where you’re adding more stress to your life.
6. Touch grass—literally.
Get outside. I’m not saying this in the metaphorical sense—I mean it literally.
Go outside, walk around, and touch some grass. Get out of your house, your office, your normal routine, and clear your head. If you can, get somewhere with trees and do some forest bathing.
For me, it's a way to temporarily check out from that cycle of worry.
7. Take your medicine. Don’t delay.
I get stressed when I have something difficult coming up. And the anticipation can be just as stressful as the thing itself. So sometimes you just have to face the music. Whether it’s a tough conversation you’re avoiding or a change you need to make, just do it. Because the best way to get past stress is not to let it drag out, right?
You have to be knocking out the stressors in your life. Get past them, move on, and get back to positive things. Don’t be scared to make the changes you know you need to make.
Take your medicine, and go forward.
8. Make time for inspiring projects.
This is what I wrote about last month (plus, you can read why I’ve had such a tough year!).
It hit me hard. I was buried in projects, and I was drained. And across the board, I was working really hard to keep things from getting worse, rather than feeling like I was pushing stuff ahead.
A colleague pointed out that I seemed miserable, and it probably was because I hadn’t been working on anything interesting or inspiring. I had been drawing no joy from my work, and that eats away at you.
So even if it’s just 5% of your time, find something that excites you. Whether it’s a hobby, a side hustle, or a new work project, having something inspiring will prevent burnout.
Find a way to tap dance to work, at least some of the time.
9. Put the phone down.
Doom-scrolling is real, and it’s a trap. The more anxious I was, I more time I would spend on my phone. Then the phone would make me more frustrated or worried. It was a vicious cycle.
And it's the same kind of doom loop that all the social networks use. They want you to be angry about something, or unhappy, or sad. And it makes you feel compelled to open that app up again.
My wife wisely told me to put the phone down, and it’s been a great tip. Spend time away from screens—read a book, go for a walk, talk to someone face-to-face.
10. Keep perspective.
It's easy to say this when you're in it, but the reality is that the problems that you have, the stresses—in retrospect—they won’t look as big as they were.
Having people around you to support you, just to remind you that “It’s going to be okay,” is huge for keeping you grounded.
Keep perspective and remind yourself that it’s temporary, no matter how overwhelming it feels at the moment.
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So, there you have it. Stress sucks, no doubt about it. But these are the tactics that have helped me navigate through it. If you’re going through a tough time, hang in there—you’re not alone.
I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
Michael
