It was 4pm and I was supposed to launch my book the next day. WooCommerce was installed but not quite working right locally. It wasn’t even installed on the staging site yet.

My base sales copy was written, but had a few @todo notes littered throughout. Stripe wasn’t setup or tested and I wasn’t sure if I was going to include Paypal.

My email reminder to my list wasn’t quite written and it certainly wasn’t set up in Mailchimp yet.

And I was suiting up to go on a bike ride.

Yeah that’s right with my launch a few hours away I was leaving it all behind in various states of not finished and riding my bike.

And it was the best thing I could do for my launch for that hour.

Exercise and Stress

The Mayo Clinic says that Meditation can wipe away stress from the day and leave you fresh. For me it’s exercise that reduces stress (again the Mayo Clinic says backs up the science on that) they even call it meditation in motion.

The power of exercise in reducing stress is one of the reasons that I almost never (as in maybe 5 times a year) miss my Friday afternoon bike ride. Coming back from that leaves me feeling energized to tackle new things.

Coming back from my ride the night before the book launch left me feeling totally fresh and ready to go.

Before I left for a ride I was stuck on a few bugs with no idea what question to even ask next. I was able to solve 3 of my issues within 10 minutes of sitting back down at my desk.

What’s your stress reducer?

Do you know what your stress reducer is? Are you willing to totally stop some project that is running behind and you’re stuck on to do that stress relieving activity?

If you answer no to either of the above you need to change that no to a yes. Figure out what your stress reliever is and then be intentional about taking those breaks when you’re under pressure. Don’t feel bad about it (even if the client calls) you need to know yourself and set yourself up for success.

Knowing what your relief valve is and using it sets you up for success over the long term.