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Work without Stress: Building a Resilient Mindset for Lasting Success
FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT STRESS.
If you re like most people, you probably think that stress is an inevitable part of life. The truth is: it s not. In a groundbreaking 30-year study, Dr. Derek Roger has discovered that everything we think we know about stress and how we should manage it is just plain wrong.
STRESS IS A CHOICE.
It is not a natural response to the pressures of work. It s a choice that you make, consciously or not, to worry and fret and agonize over the work you need to do instead of just doing it.
WORK DOESN T HAVE TO BE STRESSFUL FOR YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
This book offers a radically different approach to stress. It s about being resilient. Flexible. Mentally awake and in the moment. It s about changing your mindset to keep things in perspective instead of adding fuel to the fire with negative thoughts. The techniques you ll find in this book are powerful, practical, and proven to work without stress.
A revolutionary approach to preventing stress that is evidence-based, life-changing, and scientifically proven to work
Why do some people get stressed while others stay calm, cool, and collected under pressure? According to renowned stress researcher Dr. Derek Roger, the answer lies in resilience your ability to cope with challenges and thrive under adversity rather than ruminating and obsessing over them. In lab-controlled studies, he discovered that the key to managing stress is to stop it before it starts. To be resilient, flexible, and ready for anything.
The culmination of three decades of research, this book presents a practical and proven program of simple step-by-step techniques that you can use to:
Adjust your mindset and work more efficiently
Control your response to any kind of pressure
Detach and let go of negative thoughts
Put things in perspective and focus on what matters
Develop a stress-free leadership style
Build more resilient teams and organizations
Give constructive feedback and communicate effectively
Differentiate between caring (useful) and worrying (useless)
Open your mind to new approaches and ideas
Reach higher levels of success without all the stress
Warning: This is not another stress management book. It s not about finding time to relax. It s about cultivating resilience the ability to negotiate the rapids of life without being swept away. It s about reprogramming your emotional responses to high-pressure situations and breaking the self-defeating habits that do nothing but increase your levels of stress. In this book, you ll find case-by-case studies and day-to-day techniques to help you readjust your attitude from the moment you wake up. You ll discover essential tools for a stress-free life, including 3 questions to ask in a crisis, 4 steps to handle everyday pressures, and 8 behaviors that alleviate stress instantly. Best of all, the book shows you how to instill a no-stress approach to work in your fellow employees, throughout your organization.
Remember: You are not genetically programmed to experience stress. You have a choice. You can make your success the hard way or you can Work Without Stress.
"
If you re like most people, you probably think that stress is an inevitable part of life. The truth is: it s not. In a groundbreaking 30-year study, Dr. Derek Roger has discovered that everything we think we know about stress and how we should manage it is just plain wrong.
STRESS IS A CHOICE.
It is not a natural response to the pressures of work. It s a choice that you make, consciously or not, to worry and fret and agonize over the work you need to do instead of just doing it.
WORK DOESN T HAVE TO BE STRESSFUL FOR YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
This book offers a radically different approach to stress. It s about being resilient. Flexible. Mentally awake and in the moment. It s about changing your mindset to keep things in perspective instead of adding fuel to the fire with negative thoughts. The techniques you ll find in this book are powerful, practical, and proven to work without stress.
A revolutionary approach to preventing stress that is evidence-based, life-changing, and scientifically proven to work
Why do some people get stressed while others stay calm, cool, and collected under pressure? According to renowned stress researcher Dr. Derek Roger, the answer lies in resilience your ability to cope with challenges and thrive under adversity rather than ruminating and obsessing over them. In lab-controlled studies, he discovered that the key to managing stress is to stop it before it starts. To be resilient, flexible, and ready for anything.
The culmination of three decades of research, this book presents a practical and proven program of simple step-by-step techniques that you can use to:
Adjust your mindset and work more efficiently
Control your response to any kind of pressure
Detach and let go of negative thoughts
Put things in perspective and focus on what matters
Develop a stress-free leadership style
Build more resilient teams and organizations
Give constructive feedback and communicate effectively
Differentiate between caring (useful) and worrying (useless)
Open your mind to new approaches and ideas
Reach higher levels of success without all the stress
Warning: This is not another stress management book. It s not about finding time to relax. It s about cultivating resilience the ability to negotiate the rapids of life without being swept away. It s about reprogramming your emotional responses to high-pressure situations and breaking the self-defeating habits that do nothing but increase your levels of stress. In this book, you ll find case-by-case studies and day-to-day techniques to help you readjust your attitude from the moment you wake up. You ll discover essential tools for a stress-free life, including 3 questions to ask in a crisis, 4 steps to handle everyday pressures, and 8 behaviors that alleviate stress instantly. Best of all, the book shows you how to instill a no-stress approach to work in your fellow employees, throughout your organization.
Remember: You are not genetically programmed to experience stress. You have a choice. You can make your success the hard way or you can Work Without Stress.
"
224 pages, Hardcover
Published November 2, 2016
48 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 29, 2017
This provides a few powerful techniques for overcoming stress, specifically related to work. All stress, according to the author, is caused by rumination. And rumination accomplishes what? Absolutely nothing. I really did not enjoy hearing that because I worry and overthink and rehash every conversation I've had throughout a day, sometimes weeks or months later. I appreciated the practical tactics the author introduced, but be warned, this book is hella boring. I listened to the audiobook and had to purposefully pay attention or I would lose focus. Roger is clearly an academic and it shows in his writing. It's not super accessible, inspirational, or engaging, but it's smart and it's clear he's done his research. I'd recommend this if you're the kind of person who's fine gaining only one or two new tips/insights/techniques.
March 27, 2018
Other than the statistical data, there was a lot of useful information in here. I don't understand statistics so I kind of glossed over those sections. Learning about being awake and in the here and now -- and methods to achieve more "awake" time are rattling in my brain now, and I am finding that I am taking a lot of these lessons to heart. I am a ruminator -- now I have tools to cut off the bad thoughts and bad rabbit holes and weeds to avoid. And if you're a statistics person, hey - there's stuff for you in here too!
June 30, 2019
The information in this book is common sense, but I can see the value in breaking down and analyzing it for people who haven't really analyzed stress-fighting or thought about leadership qualities themselves. Unfortunately, the organization of the data is chaotic and confusing- there's no clear flow established at the beginning, and several chapters jump into talking about the results of the authors' social experiments and workshops (that you can pay for), before introducing the topic at hand. There's also a huge amount of space devoted to how harmful rumination is, which makes the other handful of "things not to do" feel rushed by comparison. It was no engaging for me, and I had to really force myself to focus and only read a chapter a day to keep from skimming.
July 17, 2018
Outstanding book with practical tools for personal and organizational uses. Quotes and key takeaways below:
Pressure + rumination =stress. Process to change habit of ruminating:
1) waking up
2 controlling attention
3) becoming detached
4) Letting go
Resilience is the ability to negotiate the rapids of life without becoming stressed.
Reflection is the process of thinking over a problem to arrive at a solution
Ask what is the opportunity in front of me right now?
Stress is nothing more or less than ruminating about emotional upset.
Resilient people don’t ruminate.
3 questions:
1) what’s funny about this?
2) What’s great about this?
3) What’s the opportunity here?
SBI feedback - situation behavior impact
Expressing emotion is not an end in itself. The purpose is to help you reach a resolution to what’s bothering you.
Pressure + rumination =stress. Process to change habit of ruminating:
1) waking up
2 controlling attention
3) becoming detached
4) Letting go
Resilience is the ability to negotiate the rapids of life without becoming stressed.
Reflection is the process of thinking over a problem to arrive at a solution
Ask what is the opportunity in front of me right now?
Stress is nothing more or less than ruminating about emotional upset.
Resilient people don’t ruminate.
3 questions:
1) what’s funny about this?
2) What’s great about this?
3) What’s the opportunity here?
SBI feedback - situation behavior impact
Expressing emotion is not an end in itself. The purpose is to help you reach a resolution to what’s bothering you.
April 20, 2020
I really enjoy reading this book because he explains how to differentiate the stressful and non-stressful. It changed how I view the term stress, I know that there is the good stress and bad stress that is discussed by other people but in my case, I take his message at heart and follow this kind of approach. As a person who does not like having too much stress and would prefer a peaceful environment, his message really fits my style.
December 23, 2019
Nick’s books is really interesting and full of wonderful and helpful insights.
Great Book! Nick covers interesting ideas related to how one manages stress. He also distinguishes pressure from stress. There is good research in his book as well. I would highly recommend it.
Great Book! Nick covers interesting ideas related to how one manages stress. He also distinguishes pressure from stress. There is good research in his book as well. I would highly recommend it.
January 16, 2020
The nugget of the book is the piece about rumination; it makes it worth picking up. Some good advice on how to become more self-aware and improve communication to reduce stressful interactions and responses.
April 5, 2023
Physical book - 3.5 stars
The gem of this book is that rumination is what is causing the stress, not the stressor itself. And boy I have seen this playing out in life lately. I am not sure I would have noticed if I had not just finished reading this book.
The gem of this book is that rumination is what is causing the stress, not the stressor itself. And boy I have seen this playing out in life lately. I am not sure I would have noticed if I had not just finished reading this book.
August 26, 2018
This book changed my life, by making me realize that stress is what I cause for myself and it can be controlled and eliminated.
December 14, 2019
The first half about stress is engaging; the second half about management not so much. I’d recommend finishing the first four chapters.
April 4, 2021
It's not an easy book, many pointers need time to digest and quite a lot of statistics.
December 25, 2022
Actionable techniques.
Enough repetition on topic, makes it easy to remember.
Enough repetition on topic, makes it easy to remember.
May 16, 2017
I read it twice and think it is great
January 12, 2017
This has a lot of lessons learned from experience so I didn't make a lot of notes. But I found enough here for it to have been a useful read.
I think this is a pragmatic book and a summary of the academic research is available as an appendix so you can read through that for additional nuances.
My Notes - its not really the kind of book that has spoilers -
pressure != stress
rumination != reflection (solution focussed)
"how useful were the last 12 minutes of rumination?"
detach - observe and acknowledge
high intent - low attachment
humour
put current state in scope with life experience
what's funny/great/opportunity here?
who owns this problem?
situation behaviour impact - feedback
change:
Purpose. “Why are we making this change? What is the rationale behind it?”
Picture. “What is the end state we are trying to get to?”
Plan. “What are the steps we need to take to get there?”
Part. “What is my role in the change? How do I help?”
I think this is a pragmatic book and a summary of the academic research is available as an appendix so you can read through that for additional nuances.
My Notes - its not really the kind of book that has spoilers -
pressure != stress
rumination != reflection (solution focussed)
"how useful were the last 12 minutes of rumination?"
detach - observe and acknowledge
high intent - low attachment
humour
put current state in scope with life experience
what's funny/great/opportunity here?
who owns this problem?
situation behaviour impact - feedback
change:
Purpose. “Why are we making this change? What is the rationale behind it?”
Picture. “What is the end state we are trying to get to?”
Plan. “What are the steps we need to take to get there?”
Part. “What is my role in the change? How do I help?”
September 28, 2016
Read this one through NetGalley and ended up finding so many helpful tips in it that I may end up purchasing it for others. One of the most important things the book talks about is the uselessness of rumination which is essentially stress over what has already happened or what cannot be controlled. There are no easy answers to avoiding this behavior except a constant retraining. The book focuses on building resilience to stressors and handling them quickly and efficiently. Much of it is easier said than done but the book does offer a re-framing of what we consider stress and some real takeaways on how to change your thinking.
December 6, 2016
Everyone deals with stress at some level or the other ... There are many claims about dealing with stress and not many stress management techniques are really useful.
Derek Roger takes on stress differently and explains how some stress management methods are really wrong and do nothing but aggravate stress further. He also teaches how one should change their perspective and enhance immunity to factors that cause stress.
I liked the suggestions offered in this book and recommended this for a few of my friends. If you want to make sure stress doesn't rule your life, this book sure helps you to achieve that!
**I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review through Net Galley.
Derek Roger takes on stress differently and explains how some stress management methods are really wrong and do nothing but aggravate stress further. He also teaches how one should change their perspective and enhance immunity to factors that cause stress.
I liked the suggestions offered in this book and recommended this for a few of my friends. If you want to make sure stress doesn't rule your life, this book sure helps you to achieve that!
**I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review through Net Galley.
November 23, 2020
Very applicable. Very good.
January 15, 2017
Interesting premise that stress is self imposed rather than something that we often assumed it's always there and needs to be managed. Some tips and awareness on how resilient people don't have stress because they don't allow it.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews