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Friday, December 3, 2010

5 Steps to Begin a Positive Change in Your Stressful Life



Life became a complicated affair. There are too much clutter and commotion that brought about the anxiety, stress and dissatisfaction for many. A lot of us are being caught up by our own time schedule that having 24-hours in a day is not enough to fulfil all the things we need to accomplish, may it be at work, at home, for our personal and social self or our finances.

This information age and productive generation is the reason for this stressful lifestyle that most of us lived in. Now, you can do anything in an instant and be wherever you want to be in just a few click of the button. That’s thanks to the marvel of technological advancement. But isn’t technology was supposed to eliminate the work and stress for humans? Technological advancement have created a more stressful environment and busy lifestyle because of your own mindset and choices. Instead of seeing these technology as tools to make your life much easier, you’ve used it to accept more obligations beyond your own ability. And that’s what most of us are unaware of. We become too attracted to have self-fulfilment and prestige in accepting a busy and fully-loaded responsibility, but then we complain on how stressful and unhappy our life is. Like time for relaxation and inner peace is too far from reality.

The question now is how can you stop surviving the cycle of your stressful and busy lifestyle to achieve a more balanced and stress-free lifestyle? How can you achieve a life that’s lived to the fullest?

This post will give you a five quick steps for you to start changing the stressful life you have now to change in a more positive way of life that can eventually lead you to find your inner piece, happiness and success in life.

1. TODAY IS YOURS, LIVE IT FULLY

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. – Dale Carnegie

It’s time you stop running too fast to get ahead. Life is not about the past or the future, it’s about today. In a busy and cluttered world, we tend to be too much preoccupied with the material things and demands that we forget that life is temporary and short. The only guaranteed day that you are alive is today, so live it.

2. UNDERSTAND WHAT COMPRISES A BALANCED LIFE

Everyone is a house with four rooms: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

For most, life became a routine of a long list of similar tedious tasks to be done over and over again like it will never end. Life became only about work or one aspect of life. We do not know how ever that stress and unhappiness is mostly blamed to lack of balance in life. When we tend to focus only on one aspects of our life, such as work, we tend to neglect all the other aspect and when it happens, damages occur. To change this and prevent future damages, make a renewal and try your best to meet with the four areas of your life.

3. ACCEPT CHANGE AS PART OF LIFE

The only constant in life is change. Do not be scared for change to happen. Anticipate and accept change.

One of the biggest trap that unhappy people are faced in is change. Because we are too busy and too preoccupied we neglect to see what’s happening around us and what are the things that change or about to change. And when change happens, we are hit big time and become paralyzed. Once you start doing the first two steps above, I’m sure it will be easier for you to observe change before it begins/happens. When you learned to live today and understand how balance life works, it is much easier for you to smell a change to happen and faster for you to accept it.

4. LEARN TO FORGIVE, FORGET AND MOVE FORWARD

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. – Walt Disney

Failures, pains and disappointment happens either caused by our own decisions and actions or by someone else. When ‘caused by our own decisions and actions, be kind to yourself, take it as a learning process for you to do better in the future. And when it caused by someone else, do not push it hard and blame the other person, you cannot control other’s decision/action, you can only accept them and move forward in your life.

5. KEEP EXPANDING YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

The problem with our busy lifestyle and doing the same things over and over again is we get to comfortable with things and let ourselves become ordinary. We settle for less and accept that what we currently are is the best we can become. Most of us stop learning after graduating college. However, if we want to achieve success and happiness in what we do in our day to day life, our learning should start after graduation and ends only when we die. Start learning things other than what you do. Learn ways on how to improve yourself in other areas of your life, who knows you will be able to discover a hidden talent that you can be the best of. Don’t be surprised to discover that you can more than the profession/career/course you’ve took in college.

Life is neither hard or complicated, it’s imperfect, but you too can make a big positive change in your life despite life’s imperfection. Remember, like attracts like.

Happy journey to your Life!

5 Tips for Working Nightshift and Leading a Normal Life


If you work in a business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, chances are that you have to adapt to the business hours of another country. This may leave you working night shifts in a call center more often than not. Working nights can be difficult for BPO employees, but there are ways to make it an enjoyable experience. Here are five tips for working nightshift in the BPO industry and leading a normal life:

1. Don’t forget to eat and drink.

When you are working in the outsourcing industry, it’s easy to forget to pay attention to the essential fuels that your body needs. Carry healthy snacks to work with you during your night shifts at the call center.

2. If you rotate shifts, rotate forward.

In the event that your call center allows you to rotate shifts, always rotate forward. Move from nights to day shift and finally afternoons if at all possible. This will help to keep your body and mind more in synch through the shift change.

3. Plan time to spend with friends and family.

Relationships with others are also an important part of your physical and mental health. You might be missing out on nightlife because of your work schedule, but that does not mean you cannot build and maintain personal relationships. During your time off, you can certainly find time to meet a friend for breakfast or lunch or even take a vacation. If you make a set plan with friends and family, it is easier to make sure that you get enough quality time with them. Planning ahead will also ease your feelings of isolation and give you fun things to look forward to enjoying.

4. Set a sleep schedule and stick to it.

When you are away from your outsourcing job, you need to follow a set schedule just like you would if you were working the day shift. Choose a time of day that you want to sleep and stick to it. If you go right to sleep when you get off, there will still be time to take care of errands during business hours when you wake up. Likewise, if you stay awake when you get off, you can run errands and take care of business before you go to sleep in the afternoon. The important thing is to be consistent. Consistency will help you get a full eight hours of sleep before you return to the call center.

5. Be conscious about fitness.

Working night shift tends can take a toll on BPO employees’ physical and mental wellbeing – unless you take measures to incorporate healthy living into your lifestyle. Just because you are working nights in a call center does not mean that your physical and mental wellbeing should be neglected. There are many 24-hour fitness centers that will allow you to exercise and stay in shape.