Learn to allow others to complete minor tasks without your involvement. I have struggled with this for a long time. I was never able to let go of tasks in my control which led to a lot of stressful interactions between myself and my team. Learning to let go has allowed everyone to learn and thrive in their respective roles.
With all that’s going on in our country, in our economy, in the world, and on social media, it feels like so many of us are under a great deal of stress. We know that chronic stress can be as unhealthy as smoking a quarter of a pack a day. For many of us, our work, our livelihood, is a particular cause of stress. Of course, a bit of stress is just fine, but what are stress management strategies that leaders use to become “Stress-Proof” at work? What are some great tweaks, hacks, and tips that help to reduce or even eliminate stress from work? As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing R Corey Winfrey.
R Corey Winfrey, founder of Dot Life LLC, has empowered many individuals with his philosophy of minimalism, providing a transformative approach to stress management and personal growth. He developed a unique system for living intentionally. Winfrey continues to inspire others through his teachings. Dive into Winfrey’s world and learn more about his philosophy and methods by visiting his website at finddotlife.com.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to know how you got from “there to here.” Inspire us with your backstory!
My journey started years ago as I sought to understand my existence here on earth. I began to study people of every socioeconomic class status to shape the goals I intended for myself. With initial goals aimed a financial achievement, I realized that time was the greatest asset for me. With an intense focus on preserving my time, I began the process of making reductions of everything in my life physical, mental, and social. This allowed me time to focus on more important life goals that were truly important.
What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?
The most important lesson I would tell myself, as I advise younger individuals now, is to not be so eager to obtain things that appear important in society. Focus on creating goals that connect to your well-being and not physical and social clutter.
None of us are able to experience success without support along the way. Is there a particular person for whom you are grateful because of the support they gave you to grow you from “there to here?” Can you share that story and why you are grateful for them?
My mentor, Michael Tompkins, leads by example and provides a blueprint for living a life strategically with purpose. Although it took me time to understand his “quiet’ guidance, I began to take a route in life that follows my teachings of zero tolerance for distractions that affect the positive use of my time.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think it might help people?
My current project is creating a workbook designed to be an extension of my current book “Your Dot Life”. The workbook will provide step-by-step programs to track progress on goals aimed at reducing life clutter and checklist achievements. The workbook would help individuals stay focused on their journey to living a stress-free life.
Ok, thank you for sharing your inspired life. Let’s now talk about stress. How would you define stress?
Stress, to me, is an obstruction to creative freedom and an invisible vehicle to a range of health issues. I lot of people do not realize the stress they are under. We have so many distractions that mask it until it’s too late. My goal is to help people eliminate as many unnecessary distractions as possible through “Dot Life” to avoid living so stressed.
In the Western world, humans typically have their shelter, food, and survival needs met. So, what has led to this chronic stress? Why are so many of us always stressed out?
We, in the Western world, have become accustomed to accumulating “things” that are unnecessary for living a life of true happiness. The constant bombardment of advertising and social media influence has given us an assumed lifestyle that we should reach for as a goal. When you couple the fact that we take on considerable debt for these things, it’s a mounting pressure that becomes overwhelming.
What are some of the physical manifestations of being under a lot of stress? How does the human body react to stress?
Weight loss and health issues from not eating properly. Lack of sleep and lack of ability to manifest creative thought processes are examples that come to mind for me.
Is stress necessarily a bad thing? Can stress ever be good for us?
I don’t subscribe to stress being a good thing. I feel that with all of life’s issues that target us, any additional stress that can be eliminated or avoided is far greater than considering stress a good thing. In our society, rely on distractions to take our mind off the stress we’re facing instead of removing it and focusing on improvements to live a stress-free lifestyle.
Is there a difference between being in a short term stressful situation versus an ongoing stress? Are there long-term ramifications to living in a constant state of stress?
I do believe that they are two different scenarios. However, I watch people from all aspects of life turn short-term stress into ongoing stress and adapt to it instead of eliminating it. People are subscribing to stress as being a part of the formula for tackling life’s goals. Terms like “If you are not stressed, you are not taking enough risk” comes to mind. I created to live your “Dot Life” to not always be in constant search of goals that require a high level of stress. The long-term effects bring health issues and loss of time that you can’t get back. We chase unnecessary goals and objectives that do not promote a better quality of life. We look back at what we aimed to achieve and can’t even account for the things we accumulated along the way.
Is it even possible to eliminate stress?
I don’t think we can ever eliminate stress. Stress will be in your life where control of it is not an option, however, reducing self-induced stressful situations that are brought on by unnecessarily indulging is required to minimize it.
In your opinion, is this something that we should be raising more awareness about, or is it a relatively small issue? Please explain what you mean.
Absolutely, we should be raising more awareness! The many forms of stress-related activities we align ourselves with and the underlying health-related results from stress are causing grave harm in our society. We have too many areas in life to attend to that are unnecessarily adding undue stress. The purpose of my writing “Your Dot Life” is to provide an awareness of where we should be focusing our attention in life and eliminating other areas that are detrimental.
Let’s talk about stress at work. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades. For you personally, if you are feeling that overall, work is going well, do you feel calm and peaceful, or is there always an underlying feeling of stress? Can you explain what you mean?
In my line of work (Real Estate Dev.) there is a constant level of stress as we have so many moving parts that contribute to the success of projects. I do not feel a level of calm at this moment as the factors during this time of year greatly affect my ability to control outcomes. That’s the most frustrating aspect of my line of work. In my 2024 projections, I have adjusted what I am looking to focus on and reduced the liabilities of having too many decisions being made that affect my outcomes.
Okay, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview: Can you share with our readers your “5 stress management strategies that busy leaders can use to become “Stress-Proof” at Work?” Please share a story or example for each.
- Learn to allow others to complete minor tasks without your involvement. I have struggled with this for a long time. I was never able to let go of tasks in my control which led to a lot of stressful interactions between myself and my team. Learning to let go has allowed everyone to learn and thrive in their respective roles.
- Create a team of people capable of carrying out your vision in your absence. I have started to focus on hiring the right people and not focus on saving as much money as possible. This allows me to better focus on my creative avenues to better serve my company.
- Carefully plan out detailed Job scopes that provide specifics for the completion of projects. I now provide a detailed scope of work for projects well in advance to get competitive bids for all phases of my work. This allows for more vetting and analysis needed to make quality decisions in hiring and partnering.
- Study your market/field in advance of making aggressive plans that are deemed difficult to manage. Really understanding the market/field allows you to make long-range projections with a more conservative approach than if you were to tackle your planning with less risk and mitigate market factors more easily.
- Provide employees/contractors with realistic goals and expectations that won’t create unnecessary stress and anxiety. I lot of stress is noticed when pushing to reach sales goals and objectives that simply create a continually stressful situation. My goal is to shift my company to focus on needs-based goals and not income-based goals. The purpose is to minimize and create an environment geared around necessity-based objectives.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you to live with more joy in life?
I read Medium.com every morning for inspiration.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
My vision is to move the “Dot Life” lifestyle into a holistic approach to help others remove clutter and stress from their lives. I plan to do this through writing, seminars, counseling, and trips that promote the Brand.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
You can find me on Finddotlife.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.