I feel stress when people tell me to relax.
A little stress is good. A lot of stress eats you alive. Stress in large doses makes you stupid. Chronic stress shrinks your brain. Prolonged stress kills.
23 ways to lower stress that don’t work:
- Never inconvenience yourself for others.
- Procrastinate more and make lame excuses. “The sun was out. I didn’t have time to work on your project.”
- Argue against everything.
- Honk your horn at people even if they didn’t do anything wrong. Horn-honking is a great way to lower stress.
- Compliment people when they do stupid things. “Good job, knucklehead.”
- Gossip until you run out of bad things to say.
- Pretend everyone is hard of hearing. Talk loudly.
- Tell your boss, “Thank you for being the worst boss in the history of humanity.”
- Point out bad qualities in co-workers.
- Yell at people and shake them real good. (Only do this if you are bigger than the person you shake.)
- Enjoy not liking people.
- Light matches. Lower stress by doing things mom told you not to do.
- Make stuff up. Spread lies.
- Create a mess.
- Say, “Because I said so,” when people question you.
- Keep saying, “Your lack of preparation is not my emergency.”
- Cut in line at the grocery story.
- Tweak everyone’s work.
- Brag about yourself.
- Give unrequested advice.
- Blow off meetings.
- Interrupt people.
- Drive fast. Break the speed limit.
The #1 way to lower stress:
Don’t get stressed out about being stressed out.
Beating yourself down for being stressed is like pouring gas on a fire.
The second way to lower stress is to have fun making a list of stupid things people do and calling it ways to lower stress that don’t work.
What are some ways to lower stress that don’t work?
What’s your #1 way to lower stress?
A Realistic Approach to Stress Management that doesn’t cause more Stress
8 Tips for Dealing with the Stress of Leadership
10 Ways Strong Leaders Manage Stress
How Chronic Stress Changes the Brain – and What you can do to Reverse the Damage
