Submitted by Melissa Wildstein on | 0 Comments
Last night I had the priviledge of attending Color & Confidence - a talk put together by Tin Shingle member Colette Ellis of InStep Consulting at the Carlisle Collection showroom in Manhattan. While I was bowled over by the gorgeous clothes and fabulous showroom setting, the messages that I took away from the event were really much more profound.
Colette is a trained stress management coach and motivational speaker who works with small businesses and entrepreneurs as well as with Fortune 500 companies to coach both individuals and organizations. So it's no wonder that the evening's discussion centered on stress - how it manifests itself and what we can do to tame the beast within!
In order to better manage our stress, we have to stop putting undue pressure on ourselves. We have to:
1. Stop apologizing. I personally have such a hard time with this. Being raised in the South, it's my natural tendency to apologize for everything - I'm sorry that I jumbled someone on the subway, oops I'm sorry that the refrigerator door was left ajar, oh I'm sorry that the copier ran out of paper while I was copying something. Seriously? Do these things REALLY matter? Nope. Life happens. Quit apologizing for it.
2. Stop focusing on those things that are out of our control. There are so many things that we hold on to that bug and frustrate us that we really have no control over whatsoever. So why do we continue to hold onto those things? Why do we let things that other people do stress us out? Just let go and focus on something that we can control.
3. Stop Should'veing on yourself (say it three times really fast and you'll get why we were all cracking up too!). We beat ourselves up for what we could have done but didn't. I should've done this, I should've done that. All that 'should'veing' just makes us feel guilty about what we haven't done which in turn causes more stress. So stop the shoulda, woulda coulda self-talk.
It's one thing to stop
stressing and it's something else completely to de-stress! For me, nothing's a better destressor than a glass of wine, some retail therapy and a chance to meet and catch-up with fellow entrepreneurs.
Luckily that was onhand too!
Katrina Kelly and Organize NY Founder Juli Oliver enjoying the show
