Sometimes goals take so long to achieve that we start to lose the initial enthusiasm that sparked us to take our first baby steps toward that goal. You may find yourself questioning whether the goal was realistic. You may be feeling unmotivated to take the steps you know you need to take to continue making progress. All of a sudden, you find yourself distracted by other things that have nothing to do with your goal.

All of us are under stress to some degree. If you do not engage in purposeful stress management activities, ask yourself the following questions:

Why should I manage my stress?
Is stress management really important to me?
What would I rather be doing instead of managing my stress?
Is this alternative activity more important to me that managing my stress?
Can I schedule my life so that I can manage my stress and participate in the alternative activity?
If I do not want to manage my stress now, exactly what would it take to make stress management a priority?
What would I have to give up if I succeeded in lowering my stress level?
What (or who) would I have to confront if I succeeded in lowering my stress level?

When you slack off on purposeful stress management, such as exercising, it is often illuminating to examine the reasons you tell yourself this is happening.

It's a simple concept, but one we rarely dwell on: All transitions begin with an ending. Think about the transitions in your life. Something ended before something new began. Being single ended before marriage began. Childhood ended before we became adults. An old job ended prior to starting a new one.

Sometimes endings are initiated by us and sometimes they are initiated by something outside of us.

Being in transition can be quite unsettling. Fortunately, there are ways to make change work for you.

If you have not started the transition process yet, identify the need for the change. What is causing this transition to occur at this time? Is this something you initiated or did something external initiate the change? Is this a welcome change, a beneficial change? Or perhaps this change is being thrust upon you.

If we all have 24 hours in a day, why is it that some of us feel like we have no time at all, while others seem able to balance work and leisure?

The 80/20 Rule

According to Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, 20% of what we do produces 80% of the results we see while 80% of what we do produced 20% of the results we see. If this is so, than many of us are expending a lot of energy for relatively nothing.

Did you know that stress is important to peak performance? It's true. Not enough stress and you're bored and unmotivated. Too much stress and you can't function. The trick lies in finding just the right balance to stay active and productive without feeling overloaded.

What exactly is stress?
Stress is the body's response to a stressor.

If you're like I am, you don't see yourself as having any fear of success. In fact, it's likely that you actively strive for success.

So despite this confidence, why do you find yourself plagued with self-doubt sometimes? Or, occasionally, you just don't feel motivated to work on your goal. Worse yet, sometimes you do things that actually impede the achievement of your goal.

Nearly everyone could improve his or her life in one way or another. Sadly, however, few people ever do anything about it, either out of tolerance, fear, or lack of knowledge about how to change their lives for the better.

Obstacle 1: Tolerance
Most people resist making any changes to their lives - even when they wish for it - because they've achieved a certain level of tolerance to the way things are.

Nearly all of us have goals of some sort or another - losing weight, making more friends, earning more money, earning a promotion. Such goals are especially prevalent around the first of the year. But how many of our goals do we actually accomplish? Most people think about goals only in terms of the end result and don't really formulate a clear plan to achieve them.

If you are an energetic person who likes to succeed, who likes to get things done yesterday, you might find it extremely helpful to slow down your pace when learning stress management techniques. Here's why:

Enthusiasm may push you to take on many techniques at once and do them for too long. You run a high risk of burning out and losing interest if you try to do too much too fast.