Lighten up! That's right; lighten up! In today's stress-filled environment we need to take a step back and ask ourselves: "Is it truly worth our health and our relationships with our significant others to be this stressed?" Ask yourself, "What's the worse thing that can happen?" Then, write down an action plan of what you would do IF that worse case scenario actually happened. This simple exercise will help you feel more in control and if the worse case scenario really does happen - you already have an action plan! Life is WAY too short to be stressed all the time. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination. Another approach is to take time for you - it may only be 10 minutes, but do it! Find a way to keep balanced and maintain some sort of work/life balance - whatever they may mean to you. If you don't tend to your own needs, you certainly will not be capable of handling the demands and needs of your team members!

Have Fun! You're probably wondering how on earth you're supposed to do that during a time when jobs are constantly being cut and people are being asked to do more with less resources. Fun doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming and it's needed NOW more than ever before. Plan a team event that's cheap, yet uplifting. Do you need some ideas? Check out the book 301 Ways To Have Fun At Work - or call me for ideas! Plan a scavenger hunt in the office, have a baby photo contest, do something unusual or different at your next staff meeting (bring in treats or publicly reward a team member for a job well done), have a rubber chicken award of the month and give the chicken to the person with the best idea! Prominently display the chicken in the cubicle for the month. Soon everyone will want the chicken in his or her cubicle! Project management is a serious topic, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun at work. We don't have to take ourselves so seriously!

Write down the 5 reasons why you choose the career you perform right now. What do you like about your profession? What makes you excited about your profession? When times get tough we have a tendency to forget about the positive elements of our jobs. Have all your team members do this as an exercise to 1) learn about your team members 2) focus on the good things about your profession of choice. For instance, I love project management because of the diversity of each project, the challenge of managing both technical and business situations, and working with people from a variety of different backgrounds.

I realize times are tough right now. I have WAY too many talented professional friends seeking work right now. For those who are fortunate enough to have jobs - MAKE THE BEST OF IT. Control what you can, stretch yourself and have fun! Eventually our business market will change and we'll have a whole new set of problems before us. For now - focus on the current challenge of keeping yourself and your team motivated! As project managers, that's our job right now! For those of you who might be looking for work right now, the opportunity to expand your capabilities as discussed here is ripe for the taking. Take a class, work through your network (or expand it). Using your project management tools is the best way to get back into a role where you can shine.

Denise is President of Mindavation, a company that provides project management training and consulting, team building, and leadership seminars to companies worldwide. Mindavation is a Registered Education Provider with PMI. Denise can be contacted at 303 255-4082 or info@mindavation.com. The Mindavation website is: www.mindavation.com

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