It wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone taking this course to hear that stress is a major problem in society generally and in the work environment in particular. But some stress is good when it serves as pressure to challenge you, to get you moving and engaged. As the famous American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said, "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." You do need pressure to get you focused and moving on tasks and projects. The problem is that too much pressure can cause problems for you. Unfortunately, the line between the feeling of being challenged and the feeling of being overwhelmed can be a fine one. Also, capacity to deal with stress is very much an individual experience for everyone. What is bearable for some may feel quite daunting for others. While stress has always been a part of life and the work environment, modern life and fast-paced work environments are particularly problematic in terms of stress. The changing world of work driven by the forces of globalization, innovation in technology, the movement of people across the world and the aging populations of so many countries challenge you. You're challenged in terms of your skills, the way you work, and the way you interact with others. These changing environment puts a great deal of pressure on you. Most of you feel this pressure as stress. Your ability to manage stress and build resilience, which is a capacity to respond to stress is now one of the most crucial skills needed in the contemporary work environment. Hello, I'm Dr. Alena Soboleva, and in the next six weeks, I would like to share a journey with you, where we will explore the nature of stress and its causes, particularly those in modern workplaces. Investigate the impact of stress on people, the psychological, physical, and behavioral consequences of stress, and determine what you can do about stress to build your personal resilience. In Week 1, the nature of stress and resilience, you'll survey the key components of the stress and resilience model used in this course. The types of stresses that cause stress, the physical and psychological consequences of stress, the relationships between stress, resilience and performance, and the direct resilience factors and lifestyle factors to address workplace specific stressors. In Week 2, sources of stress. You'll identify the causes of stress to classify the types of stress and deconstruct the mechanisms behind the each category. The need to busy and perception of time, flight responses and emotional labor from interpersonal interactions and work environment factors in the present as well as the future. In Week 3, approaches to deal with stress. You'll explore direct resilient strategies to shape your environment, change your perceptions, and develop specific skills. In Week 4, building resilience. You'll explore three major lifestyle factors to build your resilience. Individual traits like personality, social conditioning, emotional intelligence, health factors like exercise, nutrition, and sleep and social factors like loneliness, your emotional bank account, and community. In Week 5, managing yourself effectively, values and goals, you'll investigate work life balance, develop a values compass to determine your value speed, and use the time management metrics and big rocks concept to inform your values choices. Finally, in Week 6, managing your time effectively, time and personal organization. You'll learn how to manage your time and work demands through choices, offsetting procrastination and perfectionist behaviors, and develop an action plan to build your personal resilience. Along the way, I'll ask you to reflect on the issues discussed in the lessons and to apply the strategies to your personal experiences. Through experimentation with this strategies, you will build your personal resilience. Only you can do this, but with this course as your guide, I believe you'll be in a far better position to adapt to and thrive in our ever changing world.
