Your life is your territory.
Your first goal is to protect that territory.
When someone pressures you, use your protective power.
Your life has a fence around it.
This is symbolically the limits of your mind.
This fence has openings or doorways.
This is how people reach you.
This is how you interact with your environment.
The door to your house is such an opening.
Someone can show up and want to come in.
It is your right to defend your territory.
Use this power. It is called preserving power.
When someone has demands on you, be aware of what is happening.
It is an attack on your being.
Sometimes, these demands are justified.
Someone might say: “Look, we had a deal. I want you to respect our agreement”.
If you have an angry client showing up at your office, you might say:
“Look, I value your feed back and would love to hear what you want to say. However, I cannot speak with you right now. Please, speak with my personal assistant. She will schedule a suitable time in the next couple of days. I guarantee you that we will take time to look into it within 48 hours.”
What happened here? It is called stress management. You took a pressure and “packaged” it in a way you can handle.
The result is win-win.
The client will be happy.
You will be happy of providing great service.
Your work space stays protected.
You dealt with pressure in a wise way.
Everyone wins, right?
Your office, house or mind are all aspects of your personal space.
It is okay to switch on the answering machine if you don’t want to be disturbed.
It is okay to take off on holidays and set up an auto responder message on your email.
It is your right to protect your personal space.
Use that right!
If you don’t have the skills to deal with pressure, learn those skills.
They are called stress management skills or effectiveness skills.
What are these skills?
They are defense strategies which help you protect your personal space.
The result?
Everyone wins!
Can you see that?
If you feel overwhelmed, divide the challenge in small parts you can handle.
One at a time.
Suppose for instance, you feel pressured at home and at work.
Design strategies to deal with both.
One at a time.
It normally takes a week to establish a new behavior and about a month to fully ground it in your existence.
Multiple pressures are multiple attacks on your personal space.
Do what it takes and discover new strategies to deal with such pressures effectively.