Speaker says success can come with a pricetag in the form of stress

At the Moose Jaw branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association's (CMHA) annual general meeting Monday night, Dave Moore gave a lecture on success and its relationship to stress.
Moore, who has worked with the CMHA for many years on its workplace wellness committee, said the intent of his lecture was to get people thinking differently about success.
He said the world has become so deeply influenced by its idea of success that it has lost sight of what life is all about.
"This (influence only) creates a number of to do lists (for people) resulting in, one, a life that gets ridiculously hectic and, two, internal pressures that climb extremely high and then boil down to one word I call stress."
Moore said in his own life, over the last few years, he has had the privilege to stop, look and listen to where his life was headed. At first what he learned about himself didn't feel too good, but in the end, it turned out to be a wonderful journey.
He realized his ideas of success were so huge and demanding in one part of his life, the rest of him suffered.
"My life was so out of balance and so lost . . . however people looking at me would say 'he's successfull,' and in one area of my life, I think I was successful. I think I was doing a really good job."
But beyond that one triumph of being successful, Moore said he also had to face the disappointments of his past. To this day there are areas of his life he still chooses to skim over because he is not ready to face those disappointments.
Moore said he is sure there are people out there who are just like him. He said one of the biggest problems with the way people see success is that they associate success with being busy, which then leads to stress.
"Stress is an elusive thing. It is often misunderstood."
He said people take stress leaves because they think that if they take some time off, refocus, relax and then return to the same old game, everything will be different. Well it's not.
Moore said to relieve stress, people have to redefine their idea of success.
He said people have to stop looking at the idea of giving up an activity or commitment as a failure and look at it as a way of devoting more time to the things they feel are important and want to do well.

Lyndsay McCready can be reached at 691-1256.