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Customer Service Focus Be your best—without the stress Start your own wellness program By Annette E. Jackson, CIC, ARM Feeling pressure? Does working in a fast-paced insurance agency cause you to be anxious? Is your day filled with a myriad of never-ending deadlines, customer service challenges, and departmental tasks? More than likely the results will include frustration, feeling overwhelmed, and simply being out of sync. Worse still, stress can have an impact on your health, happiness, and job satisfaction. Significant changes in the insurance industry, rising premiums, and increased customer expectations can make life stressful. When excessive work stress and tension appear, so do wellness problems. It’s hard to be your best when you don’t feel your best. Following are some steps you can implement to take control of your circumstances at work and take care of yourself: Organize your work space. A cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind. Piles of file folders, papers, and other materials can be overwhelming and thus can trigger stress. Don’t drown in a sea of clutter. Go through each folder and either file it, complete it, or toss it. Clear your work space and work on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking seems like a time saver, but in the long run, it’s not. When desk clutter decreases, focus and productivity soar. Make your workplace attractive. One flower in a bud vase takes up little space, but it adds great beauty and pleasure. Family pictures or reminders of what makes you happiest create an oasis of peace. Anything of beauty is a reminder of the value of relationships. Surround yourself with beauty, love and joy. You’ll be amazed at the positive effect on everything you do. Don’t “catch” other people’s stress. Stress is contagious! Decide not to allow someone or something to bother you. If someone is short tempered with you, don’t react to it. Stubbornly refuse to let yourself become upset. This is hard to do, but remember, you choose your thoughts. When you stay calm, the situation defuses, solutions appear, and stress dissipates. Don’t submit to the tyranny of the urgent. A wise person once said, “Urgent things are seldom important and important things are seldom urgent.” Most of us spend our days just trying to keep up. The phone rings, a customer wants something faxed, a coworker interrupts. The goals of the day fall by the wayside. We often spin our wheels in times of stress. Stop. Take a minute to create a plan of attack. Prioritize your work flow by asking this question: “What task gets me my greatest payoff for the time I’m about to spend?” When you take specific action steps and prioritize your work, you’ll be amazed at how much stress you avoid or defuse. Nurture yourself. Chronic stress kills silently. Your body cannot take the constant wear and tear. Eating healthfully, exercising, and getting the proper amount of sleep are all important when relieving life’s stresses. Take a revitalization break every day. Five minutes a day can change your life. Here are some things you can do right at your desk to relieve stress: Deep breathing. Place your hand over your stomach. Breathe in deeply. Feel your hand rise as you breathe in and fall as you breathe out. That’s all there is to it. When you practice deep breathing, you feel its relaxing effects immediately. Visualization. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and picture yourself in a soothing environment. When you inhale and exhale slowly, you clear your mind and relieve the tightness caused by stress. “See” your surroundings as peaceful and calm. You can go anywhere your mind can take you. Skip the caffeine. Often during stressful moments, people increase their intake of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, fat, salt, and “bad” carbs. These foods may make you feel better for a short time, but you become more sluggish in the long run. Maintain a healthful diet to keep your energy level up and your stress level down. Eat sensibly. It’s easy. Fruits, vegetables, fish, grains, and “good” carbohydrates should be eaten each day. Water hydrates, cleanses, and flushes. Drink lots of it. Add a slice of lemon to ice water instead of drinking carbonated, caffeinated sodas. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “If you had a million-dollar race horse, would you let it stay up all night drinking coffee? Why would you give your billion-dollar body such abuse?” Think about that! Get the proper amount of sleep for you. Without enough sleep, you can’t achieve the laser-like focus needed to concentrate on your goals. Many of our world’s great thinkers and leaders napped 20 to 30 minutes each day. Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, and Leonardo Da Vinci were all “nappers.” Know the right amount of sleep you need to be your best. Exercise regularly. Walking is one of the best—if not the best—forms of exercise. Lift light weights for muscle tone. Bike, hike, swim, or jog for cardiovascular health. Play golf or tennis for fitness and health. It’s difficult to be in a bad mood after a good workout. Exercise increases energy. Commit to walk a minimum of three to five days each week for 30 to 60 minutes. You’ll be amazed how order, balance, and motivation will radiate into your life. Allot time to take care of yourself now. It’s critical. Find ways to renew your energy every day. Understand what’s important for you to be your best. Review old habits. Be aware of how your behavior and decisions affect you. Monitor ways of thinking. Commit to change and you’ll be astonished at how much better you feel. Better yet, you’ll love how much control you’ll have over your life. Making changes is tough. The pain of change is the price of progress. Once started, however, change becomes ingrained. Less stress means more physical and psychological well being for years to come. When you feel good, you become more efficient and have greater energy. Your customers benefit. So do you. Go for it! * The author |
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