With long stressed-out days, you can get to the point of just wanting to get home, finish dinner, drop in front of the TV and switch your brain into neutral until it wouldn't be considered too early to put yourselves and the kids to bed. That is, if you have that luxury. Many don't. This is one of the big problems. People are overdrawing on their biological sleep banks.
Seventy million are sleepless in America. We're a nation of walking zombies. Loss of sleep is creating a loss to business of 100 billion dollars a year. People have more accidents and are just grumpier folks. Fooling around with your sleep patterns only a couple of hours a week can dramatically affect your mood swings. Many people don't know how it feels to be wide- awake and alert or their old selves again. Fire Captain Bob Smith tells us to eat stress at breakfast and enjoy rest of the day!

Did you see the movie Back Draft? That portrayal was my daily life as a firefighter. One day during the holidays we had a call, "Apartment house burning." When we got on the scene the crowd was yelling, "THERE'S A CHILD TRAPPED IN THAT BURNING APARTMENT!" I called on my Dream Team of firefighters to go on fire attack.
As we were advancing our fire hose lines up to the second floor apartment, we could already hear the truck crew on the roof with chain saws punching a hole. This was to relieve the heat and gases that can reach 1100 degrees and cause this explosive back draft situation. If you took one breath of that air, it would be your last. Your lungs would collapse.
Flames flew over our helmets as we kicked in the front door to extinguish the fire. Firefighters know that when children are trapped they will often find their way under a bed. So we started a clockwise systematic search of the apartment. Because of the thick smoke, we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces.
Imagine how you would have felt when, in the second bedroom, we reached under a bed and grabbed a child's leg. We found a second child in that same room. They were close to death. We got them out of the apartment, resuscitated them and rushed them to the hospital. Luckily, those children went home for Christmas.
My fellow firefighters are on my Dream Team. Who's on yours? Who's on your Dream Team to help you fight the fires in your careers and personal lives? Who's on your Dream Team to walk you through the smoke-filled rooms of uncertainty when you can't see your hand in front of your face?
Because of stress, it's essential to have Dream Teams in our lives today. Stress is causing a collision between our families and careers. Have you noticed? We're not going to eliminate it or try to balance it in our lives anymore. With a Dream Team, consisting of customers, employees, friends, relatives and vendors, we can start blending (I didn't say balance) stress into our careers and personal lives. This can create a kind of "smoothie" that starts using some of this stress to our advantage.
All stress isn't bad. If it weren't for stress, nothing would get done. It's how we react to it that can make a difference.
What I hear most as I travel nationwide speaking about stress is that people have the feeling of being overwhelmed. They don't know when they'll catch up or where it will end. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the train has already left the station. It's not going back. The problem is that nobody knows where the train is going-and there's no brake.
I was talking to executives from a large corporation recently. They said things are so hectic and stressful in their business right now, it can be compared to trying to repair the aircraft while it's in flight.
However, some people seem to thrive on stress. For them, being under stress is just having a good day. These people will never have ulcers. They're the carriers of stress!

Contents


1 Emergency 911

2 Millions Are Sleepless in America

3 Electronic Leashes

4 Reduce the Feeling of Being Overwhelmed

5 Blending vs. Balance


Business/Career


6 Give Clear and Direct Signals

7 Don't Take the Bait

8 Change Brings Change

9 Conquer the Job Interview


Nuggets for a Successful Job Interview


10 When Do We Start Having Fun?

11 If You Don't Plan, You Won't Go


Physical Body


12 Eat Stress for Breakfast


Nuggets of Life


13 Sex and Other Stuff

14 Affection Without Sex or Sex Without Affection


Finance and Wealth


15 Wampum (Money)

16 Intuition


Stress Busters


Emotional Life


17 A Broadway Play

18 Stop Holding

19 Practice Present Moment Living

20 Set Healthy Boundaries

21 Where Are You on Your Own Personal Agenda?

22 What Does That Mean?

23 What Do You Want to See Happen?

24 How Can I Stop Using Worst-Case Scenarios?

25 You Don't Have to Be a Chameleon

26 Accepting Life on Today's Terms


Relationships


27 Learn the Nuggets of Life

28 The Communication Class

29 Now You Take the Survey

30 Survey Results for Men and Women

31 Transition to the Five-to-One Ratio

32 How Does This All Work for Me?

33 Practice the Art of Conversion

34 When Are Men Going to Get IT?

35 Recognize and Understand Processing

36 Planning Romance


Five Nuggets for Successful Relationships

37 The Enemy (Children)

38 For the Love of a Dad

39 Peace and Happiness


Appendix A

Suggested Survey Responses from Men and Women 


Appendix B


There Is a Lot More to Learn About Money
 (Continuation of Wampum)


References and Suggested Reading


Index

Fire "Captain Bob" Smith is a recognized expert

and speaker on stress, communication, change, team

building, customer service and relationship skills.

He is the author of books "Eat Stress For Breakfast"

ISBN 0-9657620-3-3 and "Fire Up Your Communication

Skills" ISBN 0-9657620-6- 8, a humorist, coach,

entrepreneur and frequent talk show guest. He also

produces customized presentations for career and

personal growth. "Captain Bob is a regular keynote

presenter for corporations and national associations

across North America.

If you saw Fire "Captain Bob" on "The View", or

heard him on a radio interview, you're going to want

to extinguish stress and ignite your relationships

by getting a copy of his HOT new book "Eat Stress

For Breakfast" or "Fire Up Your Communication

Skills" which have been translated in 21 countries

including Latin America, South Korea and China.