Knock out the mammoth that is chasing you

I listened to a TedX talk the other day about "Coming out of the closet". It's a great speech about coming out of the closet, not just in the way we all know it, but about coming out of the closets we all have. Telling your kids you're getting a divorce, telling your friends you just declared bankruptcy, etc. But what really struck me was the part where she talks about stress.

Listen to the whole thing if you want, but the section I am referring to is from 4:56 to 6:08  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSR4xuU07sc

She talks about the effects of prolonged stress that staying in the closet causes. The chemical reaction our body produces in response to stress was meant to protect us in situations of immediate harm. Like being attacked by a mammoth. The stress lasts for the period of the attack but then vanishes when the attack is over.

It got me thinking about all the stress factors in my life.What do I worry about? What keeps me up at night and why? And I realized that they are all things that I know I need to take care of but haven't for different reasons. And then I started thinking about how much better my life would be if I did take care of those things. How awesome would it be not to have to worry about lingering issues?

Granted there are some things in people's lives that will cause on-going stress and cannot just be eliminated by taking care of something. If you or someone in your family is seriously sick, you will worry about it and there is nothing you can 'take care of' to make it go away.

But how much unnecessary stress are we causing ourselves with things that don't need to be a stress factor? How many things could we just eliminate from our minds at night lying in bed if we just ate the proverbial frog?

Have you been postponing an important but critical conversation? Is there a bill or debt that has been hanging over your head for a while? Is that funny looking mole in the back of your mind at all times? Is there someone you owe an apology to? Are you worried about the future of your job?

Sure some of these can be difficult to handle, but what if that mole is nothing? Or what if it is something but it is removed early enough to not cause any harm? Waiting any longer to have it checked out surely won't help the situation. Can you apply for different jobs even if you don't know what the future of your current job is just to have a back-up plan? Can you take classes, ask for stretch assignments, etc, to make yourself more valuable in your current job? Can you call that bill collector that is calling your every day and you let it go to voicemail because you don't want to deal with it and set up a payment plan?

I know that dealing with life is not that simple. Some things will be stressful and difficult, no matter what.
But with every issue you face, ask yourself this question:

Is eating the frog really worse than being chased by an angry mammoth?