5. Spiritual Burnout: This is just feeling hopeless, feeling helpless…and you get really calm. People in this stage kind of go, “Is this it? Is this my life?“ They’re very calm about it, and they all of a sudden want to make all these changes. I had a girlfriend that did this a couple of months ago. I took her out to dinner – we have dinner about once a month – and she’s having problems like everybody else. I mean, it’s normal stuff, and she said, “I’ve decided I’m going to quit my job. I’m leaving Steve, I’m going to do it. I’m taking Madison, I’m going to move to the South Seas, Laura, I’ve decided to paint.“ This is not a good thing when your friends say this to you; and by the way, don’t reply, “Good idea. Good idea.“ A lot of people have gotten to this point in the lives at some point – where it’s so awful that anything can be better, right? That’s where you know you’ve pretty much hit the bottom, because you just want to make these sweeping changes.

Put a check next to the number if you recognize yourself in one of these stages.

The Stress Continuum

Let’s talk about bad stress. These are all the signs of the distress. So here’s what I want you to do: I’m going to give you two minutes to answer. “What is happening in my life right now that I think is causing me the greatest amount of stress?“

How many of you put yourself on the distress side? Who’s on the higher stress side?
How about eustress? Right now, most people in your industry are on the high side.