This week’s book recommendation: STRESS LESS, ACHIEVE MORE: Simple Ways to Turn Pressure into a Positive Force in Your Life by Aimee Bernstein is worth reading
Learn How to Deal with Pressure to Gain a Powerful Ally
For some, it’s feeling buried in work. For others, it’s having a micromanager for a boss or a team with daunting expectations. For still others, it’s facing fierce competitors. In today’s workplace, nearly everyone experiences pressure. Experiencing pressure, however, doesn’t have to mean sacrificing focus, productivity, and sleep—or, worse, suffering depression, migraines, and an ulcer.
“Pressure can be a very good thing,” says Aimee Bernstein, psychotherapist and executive coach. In her new book, STRESS LESS, ACHIEVE MORE: Simple Ways to Turn Pressure into a Positive Force in Your Life, Bernstein presents a fresh perspective on pressure and teaches frazzled professionals how to use this potent energy source to their advantage. She not only challenges the standard recommended stress-relievers—take a walk, do yoga, meditate—as unrealistic; she challenges the very notion of attempting to escape the abundant pressure in our demanding jobs and busy lives. Drawing on psychology, organizational development, and the peace-and-harmony focused martial art of aikido, Bernstein shares her realistic approach: accept pressure as unavoidable and then go with its flow. As she tells readers upfront, “I’ll show you how to expand your capacity for handling increased amounts of pressure while rediscovering the wonder of being alive.”
For anyone eager to transform pressure from a dreaded enemy into an ally, STRESS LESS, ACHIEVE MORE offers a step-by-step map. With the help of practical tips, techniques, and exercises, readers learn how to:
- Identify their core personality type (Perfectionist, Giver, Performer, Romantic, Observer, Trooper, Epicure, Boss, or Mediator), understand how their personality informs their worldview, and move beyond its boundaries and biases to make better, more objective and balanced decisions and reduce stress.
- Focus their attention on high priority, high payoff tasks and goals, and tap into and extend their natural reserves of inner energy to rev up their performance.
- Change their routine, harmful responses to stress triggers, stay calm and centered in the midst of chaos and crises, and preserve their integrity under pressure.
- Resolve conflicts harmoniously, and both excel at and encourage collaboration. Take their heart to work—that is, handle high-pressure situations by trusting their
instincts and sensibilities, not just their mind—and listen to their inner wisdom to spark creative solutions to high-pressure problems…plus more. At every step, readers will find wisdom through seeds of truth quotations, insights through reflective questions, and ample opportunities to develop and grow through mind/body/energy practices. With STRESS LESS, ACHIEVE MORE to light and lead the way, even the most overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed-out will come to embrace pressure and seize its power to overcome obstacles, heal and strengthen relationships, and perform at their peak—with incredible ease.
Aimee Bernstein, president of Open Mind Adventures, is a change accelerator, executive coach, organizational consultant, and psychotherapist specializing in leadership and personal development. Her clients have included Dolce & Gabbana, The Ritz Carlton, Microsoft, Intel, and NASA, among others, as well as numerous individual professionals in business, education, and other fields. She lives in Miami, Florida.
Stress Less, Achieve More can be found on Amazon.com