How to Reduce the Stress in Your Life

by anthony on November 12, 2009

Stress is something that we all have to deal with each and every day. There’s work related stress, relationship stress and financial stress just to name a few. If we don’t develop effective strategies for dealing with stress, it can lead to many problems including physical illness.

One of the most effective strategies for reducing your stress levels is to learn to live your life in day-tight compartments.

Let me explain…

When ship builders design passenger ships, they divide the ship into sections and between each section they place a water-tight door to create several separate compartments.

If one of the compartments is flooded, the ship’s captain can close the water-tight doors and the ship will continue to stay afloat.

Imagine for a moment that your life is a series of compartments each made up of a single day. On either side of each day is a day-tight door.

Just as the water-tight doors in a ship block out water and prevent the boat from sinking, your day-tight doors block out the past and future and prevent your outlook on life from sinking.

In your day-tight compartment, you do not have to analyze the past or worry about the future.

All you have to deal with is today.

When I was working 70+ hour weeks in the corporate world, I found this day-tight compartment strategy to be a useful form of stress management.

Each morning I would imagine that I was closing my day-tight doors. This helped me to stop analyzing the past and prevented me from worrying about the future. I could then simply focus on what I had to do in the next 24 hours.

Often when I talk to people about living their life in day-tight compartments someone will ask “Don’t you need to visualize your future everyday in order to make it a reality? How can I do that if I’m living in a day-tight compartment?”

This is a very good question. The answer is that you first visualize your future goal in its entirety and then determine what small step you can achieve today. Next, you bring this single step inside your day-tight compartment and shut your day-tight doors.

In this way you are not intimidated by the size of your overall goal and can just focus on what you need to do today while still moving steadily towards your achieving your long term goals.

So the next time you are under stress, try taking a deep breath and make the decision to live your life in day-tight compartments. Each morning, imagine closing your day-tight doors on the past and the future.

During the day, if you catch yourself analyzing the past or worrying about the future, remember that these thoughts do not belong in your day-tight compartment and try and let them go.

By learning to live your life in day-tight compartments, you can greatly reduce your stress levels and lead a happier and healthier life.

Until next time,
Dare To Dream
Anthony