Despite your chosen career, work stress affects everyone. Even when you love your job, you’ll often find yourself stressed and overwhelmed. Ultimately, it’s how you manage your stress that makes all the difference.
Managing your work stress is essential since the stress is inevitable. You cannot allow it to overtake your life, affect your performance, or negatively impact your wellbeing.
When you are in a stressful moment at work, it may be hard to put it in perspective. Luckily, since everyone goes through this, many quotes from those who have been through it will help. These quotes will put the work stress in perspective for you and will help you get through the hard times.
Fifteen Wise Quotes That Will Help to Put Your Work Stress in Perspective
1. “Trying to be a perfectionist brings increased stress and hinders performance.” – T. Whitmore
Perfectionism is unattainable, so striving to reach perfection will only harm yourself. You’ll be more stressed out, and your performance will suffer because of it. Instead of trying to be perfect, just do your best and be proud of what you have achieved.
2. “Gratitude can reduce your stress and anxiety.” – Bree Miller
When you feel the work stress becoming too overwhelming, change your thought process. Instead of thinking about what’s stressing you out, think about what you are grateful for. Thinking this way can help put your stress in perspective and help you get through it.
3. “Believing that you must do something to perfection is a recipe for stress, and you’ll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it.” – Steve Pavlina
As explained in a previous quote, striving for perfection is harmful to your progress. When you do this, you’re applying negative thoughts to the task you’re working on. This mindset only makes work-related stress worse because you’ll begin to get stressed merely thinking about the job.
It will also cause you to avoid doing the task, causing more stress when the work piles up. Think positive thoughts while you are doing something that stresses you out. It can help relieve some of the immediate stress, and it’ll help reduce future stress related to that task.
4. “One of the best ways to reduce stress is to accept the things that you cannot control.” – M. P. Neary
You can’t control everything, so you may be stuck in some situations that you don’t enjoy. Learn to accept these situations, because if you can’t change it, you might as well not stress about it. When you learn to accept things you can’t control, you’ll notice your stress levels decrease, too.
5. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius
External forces cannot cause you pain. Your reaction to stressors is what creates the pain. It is essential to stop over-estimating the severity of a situation so that you can react appropriately.
So, the next time something at work is stressing you out, stop giving it that ability. Take a deep breath and always keep in mind that this external force should not be causing you pain.
6. “Stress, anxiety, and depression are caused when we are living to please others.” – Paulo Coelho
If you are living to please your boss or your superior, you will often be stressed out at work. Instead, live to please yourself while still meeting your work requirements. When you do your best, you’ll be more satisfied and less stressed out.
7. “Mindfulness creates centered awareness. When you do one thing at a time, you’re guaranteed excellent results. If you do too many things simultaneously, it messes up your neural circuits. Focus on one thing at a time.” – Deepak Chopra
Frequently, stress at works comes from having too much to do at once. Instead, try batching your workload and completing one thing at a time. This way, as Chopra explains, you are sure to do your best work.
When you try doing too much at once, you won’t be giving your all to any of the tasks. It’ll hinder your performance, stress you out, and cause you to feel overwhelmed.
8. “Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.” – David Allen
Similar to the last quote, this one explains how doing too many things at once can cause problems. When you start tasks and move on to another one before you finish with the first, you’ll get stressed out.
It’ll cause you to feel like you have so much more work to do than you truly have. Try to finish one task before moving ahead to the next, and your work life will become much less stressful.
9. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller
When life is a breeze, and there are no unexpected events, you don’t develop your character. On the other hand, when you are faced with issues, your style can be developed for the better.
When you are stressed at work, remember these words from Keller. Each obstacle is a learning opportunity and allows you to grow and learn.
10. “When money becomes your purpose, stress, and depression become your path.” – Prabakaran Thirumalai
If your work stress seems to be overtaking your life, you need to find a new purpose. This statement doesn’t mean you should quit your job. Instead, it means that you need to make your purpose in life something that you enjoy.
Then, work won’t be so overwhelming and stressful for you. Making money your purpose in life only makes work more intolerable.
11. “Don’t react when you are upset because at that time, your reaction will be based on your negative emotions, but intuitive and positive thoughts flow when you are calm.” – Unknown
You can think more clearly and effectively when you are calm. So, when your stress is overtaking your thoughts, take a break, and refocus. Calm yourself down before returning to work so that you can think more productively and positively.
When you do this, you’ll be able to figure out the solution to your problem. Trying to figure it out when you are stressed may only make it worse. Your wellbeing will benefit from this break, and your work will be better, too.
12. “Stress can actually help you focus better and can be positive. Having small amounts of stress can stimulate you to think. Being able to manage your stress is key.” – Frank Long
A small amount of stress can keep you motivated and moving, which can be a good thing. It’s when the stress begins to overtake your thoughts and negatively impact your work that it becomes a problem.
So, the key to beneficial stress is to find a way to manage your stress, as Long has explained. When you can do this, this stress you experience at work can be used as a productivity tool.
13. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey
You should only put on your schedule the things that are priorities. Then, you aren’t re-working your plan all the time to get the priorities done. When everything on your desk is a priority, it’s easy to know where to get started.
14. “Remember that stress doesn’t come from what’s going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what’s going on in your life.” – Andrew Bernstein
The situations in your life aren’t the problem. Your thoughts and your reaction to those situations are the problems. When you begin to think about your hurdles positively, you won’t have so much work-related stress.
15. “Some stress is necessary in our lives when we want to stimulate creativity, or to promote learning.” – Christian J. Borg
Without stress, you wouldn’t be driven to try something new. This means you wouldn’t ever have to be creative, and you wouldn’t ever learn anything. To grow, learn, and develop in life, you have to face stressful times so that you can explore new things.
Final Thoughts on Quotes That Will Put Your Work Stress in Perspective
Work stress is to be expected, no matter which career path you have chosen. Even those who love their jobs will find themselves stressed out at work at times.
When work stress sets in, it is crucial to put the stress in perspective and change your way of thinking. Remind yourself that each stressful moment is a way for you to learn, grow, and develop.
Stay strong and remember these quotes that will put your work stress in perspective. Stay strong, focus on the task at hand, and do your best no matter how you are feeling.
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