Overcoming Stress In My Life

Several months ago at Panera Bread, I had a great conversation with a young business owner about the possiblity of putting together some kind of trade show for small businesses. That conversation ended up turning into a two day conference which is going to be held this Friday and Saturday at the local Sheritan hotel, include 18 seminars, 2 lunches, exhibitor booths, key note speakers during lunch both days and a partridge in a pear tree.

On one hand I'm beyond excited because it's the first major event that I've been a part of at this level in the area, but on the other hand it's down right terrifying. Thoughts like, "What if no one shows up?" or "What if one of my instructors doesn't show up?" have plagued my mind for the last two days.

So earlier today, I pulled out my favorite stress reducing tactic to ease the mental pain and asked myself these questions.

1. What is the worst case scenario?
2. If worst case becomes reality, can I live with it?
3. What can I do to prevent worst case from happening?

I don't remember where I developed that tactic from, but I imagine it's some kind of hybrid blend of all the slef-help books I used to read. It doesn't matter too much where I got it, becaue it still works. Since answering my questions I realized it's all good and I've been extremely produtive and had less stress since then.

So, if you find yourself stressed about any thing at all, give my questions a try.