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1) Realize - ideal situation:
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Host monthly meetings that are stimulating, regularly well attended,
and require little effort to coordinate.


2) Review - the real-life situation:
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Two years ago you organized for a group to meet and talk shop.
There was a lot of excitement and energy in the core group and
you could count on visitors filling up the ranks. For the last year
coordinating the date to maximize attendance has started to
weigh on you. People are now slow to respond, switch their
availability, and cancel at the last minute. It's been an on-going
battle and you are now worn out.


3) Reveal - ideal vs. reality comparison:
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Your meetings are sufficiently attended, but the effort is
starting to outweigh the benefits.


4) Stress Release tactics - these can be done instantly:
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Openness: Be honest with yourself about the accumulated toll
this effort has taken on you. Recognize that you've put in a lot
of effort. Simply acknowledging yourself can give you tremendous
perspective. It can show you how far you've pushed yourself and
can give you reason to put more effort in or to cut back.

Motivation: Remind yourself why you started the activity, and
why you continue to do it. Are they the same? Does the new
definition still have great meaning to you? Are you afraid of letting
someone down? Yourself? Your ego?


5) Stress Reduction tactics - these take time to implement:
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Systems: What methods can be put in place to automate the
meeting process? By now it's clear what needs to be done for
each meeting to occur. Chances are, with a little more effort one
time, those things won't have to be repeated.

Delegation: Who is most likely to want to pick up the reins and help?
If unsure, how about just making your feelings known? Showing
vulnerability can also be viewed as proclaiming strength, that one's
abilities aren't endless, and that a difficult task need not be so hard
when duties are shared. Do you think that you are the only one who
can accomplish this feat?

Expectations: Make sure you're meeting your own first. How high
must attendance be to satisfy your ego? What if only one other
person showed up, but the insights were deep?


6) Remind yourself:
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Aside from enjoying a life of lowered stress, you deserve
to recognize and reward yourself for taking the time and
putting in the effort to undo years of harm. Giving yourself
a reminder of what you've learned will help you maintain the
progress you've made. It's easy to skip this step, but that
makes the process less enjoyable, which is the antithesis of
what we're working towards.

What will be your reminder? Pick something that will stand
apart from the little things you give yourself to make this
experience more memorable.


7) Repeat as necessary:
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Releasing stress is an ongoing process that gets easier the
more it is applied. With each application of the Seven R's
deeper layers of stress will be revealed and released.


Broader discussion:
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Why should an act we choose to commit cause us stress? After all,
we're the ones making the decision. I believe it's because we're
simply not aware of, or are too afraid to act on, our inner
values and priorities. This discordance coupled with feeling too
guilty to admit or accept that the choice we've made is actually the
best one we could have made at the particular time and situation.

At this point you have another choice:
1) Gratefully accept the situation as being the best possible, and
continue with your chosen activity.
OR
2) Gratefully accept the situation as being the best possible, and
change your chosen activity to align with your true desires.

Which is it going to be?
(hint: there's no wrong answer, just different outcomes)


General Stress Strategy:
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No matter the situation, the best response is never to
"stress out." The next time you feel stress ask yourself what
a better response would be, and do that instead.

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