De-Stress to Live a Rich Life

Think of this. Feature a person who believes that building a career and making a fortune will make him happy. (Or her – could be either.) Now feature that person driving himself relentlessly to achieve that financial success. Work is six or seven days a week which includes some 14 and 15 hour days. No time to barely take a breath. Stress is considered something to be endured on the way to “happiness.” It’s considered the price of success. There were many years I even wore this destructive lifestyle like a badge of honor.
Does that sound like a peaceful, joy-filled life? Not to me it doesn’t.
I have learned that it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, some of the wealthiest people I know only work 5-10 hours a week.
Life is meant to be enjoyed, and the life we live today is not a dress rehearsal. This is the only chance we get to make it happen right. Back in the days when I was a college student, I had the opportunity to take a few missions trips to Juarez, Mexico. The people we ministered to lived in abject poverty. Their “houses” were crates and cardboard boxes. However, I distinctly remember how happy these people were. It had a profound effect on my life seeing the light in their eyes and the smiles on their faces.
I became convinced that anyone could live with that kind of heart-felt, child-like joy in life. But it doesn’t happen by chance. Simply because of the way our society functions, stress can be experienced in many and various ways. Just a drive to work in rush-hour traffic can set your nerves on edge. Face it, we Americans live in a fast-paced society. So what’s the answer?
The answer is to pay attention to the problem. Don’t just accept stress as a given. (Basically, stress can be a killer and ongoing stressors can be related to any number of diseases and illnesses.)
Running non-stop and never allowing for any down time can be potentially lethal. Take the time to back up, stop and re-evaluate. Invest time to de-stress. This can be a few minutes during each day; it can also be done on a weekly and quarterly basis.
In my own life, I have created a cycle of working on the more difficult challenging projects three weeks out of the month. I then set aside the fourth week for working on more restful, more creative projects. I’ve found that this cycle of weeks works great. When I come back from that “restful” week, I am more invigorated and recharged to return to the other tasks at hand.
On a quarterly basis, I like to get completely away from everything (picture a cabin in the woods). I’m not referring to a vacation where every spare minute is scheduled with sightseeing tours. Oftentimes that is as stressful, or more so than daily life. I mean time away from all of the normal demands that pull you in a thousand different directions.
When I first started taking these little getaways I saw it as an expense. Now I’ve come to see it as a wise investment.
Take time to laugh. Take time to build needed relationships. Take time to rest. Take time to reflect. Take time to meditate.
These are wise investments in building your rich life and will pay off in big rewards.