Stress Managment: How to Beat the Get By Syndrome

I'm sure you have heard of IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, a painful and difficult-to-treat digestive disease.

Well, there is another disease that is also painful and difficult to treat. I call it GBS - Get By Syndrome.

GBS is characterized by the tendency to sell yourself and others short, to believe that minimal effort is "good enough." Just doing "good enough" is a habit that is easy to acquire and difficult to break.

The problem is that "good enough" never is.

In business, if you do less than is expected, customers will talk about you in negative ways. If you just do what is expected - good enough - no one is likely to say anything about you at all. If you do more that what is expected, people will rave about you.

We can develop GBS in our homes and relationships as well. Many people get up in the morning, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, get up the next day, and just as it says on the shampoo bottle, rinse and repeat the same thing as the day before.

At the end of the day spent living by the Get By Syndrome, you don't settle easy, because the day has not been good enough. At the end of a life lived by GBS, you'll have lots of regrets.

The solution is to raise the bar of expectations of yourself in your own life.

Doing just a little bit more than the next guy in business, finding some creative ways to say I love you at home, can change your days and your life. And the good news is that it really is not a difficult habit to develop.

Just one more repetition when you are working out, one more minute spent playing with your kids, one more phone call to take care of a customer - that's all it takes to make a significant difference.

Here's my challenge to you to beat Get By Syndrome: For one week, do just a little bit extra at home and at work. Pay attention to two things: how you feel differently and the response of those around you

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