How Do You Deal With Stress?

I am generally a pretty cool customer. That’s not to say that I don’t worry about things, it just means I deal with it pretty calmly. The first time I was laid off, I told my wife about it and assured her I had a plan for dealing with it right away. That was it. Was I mad about it? Absolutely. Worried? Sure. But my mind was busy with a lot of other things.

There are times that I get nervous, too. That’s stress of a different animal to me. Public speaking still makes me nervous. Big games for my Blazers or Cougs make me nervous. I have ways of dealing with nerves, though.

The day before one of our conferences is a stressful one for me but it shouldn’t be. My part of the conference — planning speakers, talking topics and getting the agenda up to shape — is done months ahead of time. The best thing I do at a conference is show up with a smile and energy, talk to a ton of people, tweet and write and learn from attendees what worked and what didn’t. We have a phenomenal team who does the logistics on site.

The fact is, I don’t know what I am worried about or what is stressing me out. Do I worry about everything going smoothly? Do I worry about people not being happy with how it turned out? Yes, of course. I think about that months ahead of time, too.

Here’s what I generally do when I’m stressed:

1. I write (stuff like this)
2. I clean or organize
3. I focus on getting a good nights sleep
4. I read (currently re-reading The Breaks Of The Game)
5. I actually write (like on paper)
6. I drink decaf coffee

That’s pretty much worked for me for the last few years of dealing with our own conferences. Things like logically telling myself that I shouldn’t worry? Not so much.

How do you deal with stress and nerves? What’s the sure-fire way to find your peace?