The Secret To Stress Management, As You Operate And Sell Your Business.

Stress management may be the most elusive topic covered in all of this information. Stress is a relatively new topic for investigation. The first broadly distributed book written on the subject was written by Hans Selye, called the Stress of Life published in 1956. He followed that up with Stress Without Distress in 1974. Selye's books are well worth reading, as he was a medical scientist and researcher who devoted his life to the subject of stress.


Almost everything we do and that happens to us involves stress. However, different things involve different types and levels of stress. You have probably seen the scales that have been developed that rank events in the external world according to stress. Marriage break up is one level. Death of a family member another. And so on.


However these scales provide little if any information about stress management. As an aside, I have not seen selling a business rated on the stress scale. But my guess would be that it would combine selling your home, with moving your home, with perhaps a bit of retirement thrown in.


Many of the events included on these scales are external events over which we have little or no control. They seem to involve some levels of uncertainty. One of the ways that I have found useful in stress management is to minimize uncertainty. And one way to minimize uncertainty is through appropriate advanced preparation.


Applied to selling your business, this strategy involves systematically preparing your business for sale, by removing as many areas of uncertainty as possible. So that you can say that if A happens, then you can confidently say the result will be B. This goes back to the various ways of systemizing your business.


Popular and more scientific books can provide you with various strategies for dealing with stress. Many of these will work when the stress results from the process of selling a business.


In my own experience I have found that physical exercise has been very effective. The first time I was fired from a job was quite stressful. I went for a hard lunch time run after I got the bad news. I came back so relaxed that I was able to immediately negotiate a wrongful dismissal settlement that far exceeded prevailing standards.


Another technique that I have found highly effective in dealing with stress is meditation. And science has proven it to be effective. So I have no hesitation in recommending some type of meditation.


However in the context of selling a business, I believe that the most effective stress management technique you can adapt is that of effective preparation. It is really quite surprising the effect the knowledge that you are well prepared can have on your level of stress. Particularly going into something that you know can create stress.


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