CHANGE IN ATTITUDE: MANAGING STRESS THROUGH SOAR MODEL

Stress is the most widely used term in the present scenario. Everyone is stressed irrespective of their location, job, age or gender. One may wonder if we are allowing ourselves to become a victim of stress because it may be related to a fad which describes one’s social status and worth. It may have become a part of societal perception of job demands and is akin to our happiness quotient. We live in an intense age where, one is expected to ‘be all’ and ‘know all’. In such an age, the chances are that we are trying to find an escape route by declaring ourselves ‘stressed’ as if we are suffering from a terminal disease which has no cure. Stress is palpable in even children and people who have willingly decided to go without work, but are in the race anyway. In such a scenario one may not dismiss the possibilities that we are all becoming victims of a social bug to which people relate their sense of worthiness and the cure may lie within each individual. In a recent survey done by the author, it was discovered that in important sectors like Aviation, Construction, Apparel and Automotive, about 50% respondents, who belonged to senior management, fell into the category of low optimism levels. This reflected in their behavior, interpersonal skills and ability to communicate too. If an individual is showing so many lows in one’s attitude, it is natural that the person will be prone to stresses too. In this fast developing, technology driven, dynamic world, an individual finds himself in a race which one can’t always win. The competition is not only with the fellow workers but also with the machines and disruptive technology. Every day one feels rendered redundant in one or many ways at work place. Either there is a smarter person posing competition or a smarter device. In such a scenario one may find stress as a resort to halt. The flight and fight syndrome looks for a habitat in the more negative road of stress and stressors. The objective of this paper is to discuss how to manage stress through Spiritualism, Optimism, Acceptance and Rationalism (SOAR) model.