Taxes and Stress

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. (Proverbs 12:24-26 ESV). Today is tax day for many people. It is a stressful day for many people. I saw some tips lately from a book, Why Make Yourself Crazy? 100 Ways to Rid your Life of Needless Stress by G. Gaynor McTigue. Perhaps they will be as helpful to you as they were me: 1. Do one thing at a time. We are experts at multitasking; however, it often leads to mistakes, or unreliable performance. While you might want to argue with that, it probably depends on the job and what machinery is involved. The point is that when we are doing too many things at once, we lose the satisfaction of focusing on a job, giving it our total attention, and doing it well, and then finishing and moving on to the next thing. I do think that multitasking adds seriously to our level of stress these days. McTigue emphasizes, "Enjoy the experience. Why make yourself crazy?" 2. Throw something out every day. McTigue says, "You've got too much stuff in your house. Office. Garage. Attic. Useless clutter that weighs you down, getting in the way, obscuring the things you really need. Be realistic. If you're not going to use it, lose it." Or give it away. Just getting rid of one thing a day should help to keep the clutter under control. 3. Eliminate meaningless deadlines or useless meetings. Our life is full of deadlines. Arbitrary and unrealistic time constraints imposed by ourselves and others that serve only to make us more pressured, anxious, or stressed out. We can save our stress energy for the truly immutable deadlines, like tax day, or Christmas. 4. Don't be so self-conscious. Most people aren't judging you. In fact, they're usually so wrapped up in the business at hand, or in their own image, they're barely noticing what you're wearing, how you're coming off, or that everything isn't just so. Lighten up on yourself. 5. Just do it. This may seem like a contradiction to the above, but rather than procrastinate over something you have to do and stress out about it, just do it. Usually the time spent stewing and brewing is longer and more stressful than just tackling the job and getting it done. Or chop the job down to manageable, bite size portions. 6. Spend some time doing nothing. Spring is full of chores to be done. There is gardening and summer schedule is ramping up. But do take time to just be, hang out, read, sleep, relax, meditate, and focus on God. This is easier for some of us than others. But we all benefit from taking a little time to do nothing at all. Our reading today comes from the wisdom of Proverbs. It speaks of a balance in our lives. In today’s world, our concern is not doing nothing, but doing everything! Take a little time and reevaluate your stress levels. Eliminate those that you have control over. You will be healthier and happier!