<p><img width="100" vspace="0" hspace="0" height="116" border="0" align="left" alt="" style="margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px" src="/FileUploads/image/MonroeMiller031615.jpg" />Who can remember a time in life when stress wasn’t a big factor in daily living? I contend that everyone deals with stress. From the stress caused by worrying about learning to ride a new two-wheeled Schwinn bike to fears of getting a job after college, stress cannot be avoided.<br /> <br /> Take a job as a golf course superintendent and you’ll find out. If there was a constant during the 36 years I was a superintendent, it was a lot of stress. It always seemed to me people outside our profession couldn’t imagine just how stressful it can get; after all, we weren’t astronauts or surgeons. We worked in the confines of a great game, the work was outdoors and, really, what we were doing was just cutting grass.<br /> <br /> Stress comes to us because the expectations of players are often so high, the result of high dues and expensive green fees. Or they’ve got guests they want to impress and expect flawless conditions to help do that.<br /> <br /> Too often we are given budget conditions that are inadequate for providing the playing conditions players or members want. <br /> <br /> Too many superintendents are perfectionists, a trait that will condemn you to frustration and stress. That’s because perfect conditions are nearly impossible and never last long. Perfection is just plain unrealistic with golf turf. Better to simply aim to do your very best and eliminate a big chunk of stress.<br /> <br /> The uncontrollable variable we face every day is weather. Our best plans fall apart when a major weather event occurs. Face it, you can’t control the uncontrollable: weather or, sometimes, even people. Don’t even try.<br /> <br /> Superintendents are like most people and drive to succeed. There is a certain fear of failure that can heap the stressful times on us.<br /> <br /> So, what to do? First, recognize that 80 percent of working people feel job stress. We are not alone and misery always likes company.<br /> <br /> I remember vividly when I realized how stress was hurting me. I was at an appointment with my dermatologist for a skin cancer checkup. The nurse took my blood pressure twice and then left the room quickly for a different BP monitor. She repeated the process and quickly left again only to return with the physician. He took my BP and then asked me whom my internist was. I was escorted up to see my own doc, who confirmed extremely high BP and immediately gave me medication. Curiously, he was a member of our club and told me in no uncertain terms that I would have to watch my health and stress levels or I’d be dead. I took the message to heart.<br /> <br /> For years, my first impulse during stress was to fire up a cigarette. Thank goodness I quit smoking -- it doesn’t relieve stress and can cause cancer! I also learned that healthy living reduces job stress, as well.<br /> I found great comfort by keeping in close contact with colleagues. So often they were experiencing some of what was troubling me and it helped to learn what they were doing. Technology today makes keeping in touch even easier.<br /> <br /> Our clubhouse sits on a promontory and close by was the putting green. When worried, I often would drive up there, out of sight, 200 feet above the water level of Lake Mendota. The view was magnificent. The moments alone, the natural beauty and the quiet often let the stress melt away.<br /> <br /> It was only a few years after I started my career that my wife really helped relieve stress. We lived a short walk from the golf course, and I was there too much of the time, including after supper. She found a new home on the other side of the lake that was too far away to go back to the course all the time. That’s another stress maker – too much time on the job.<br /> <br /> Over the years, experience and confidence and success helped reduce stressful circumstances we face. We also tend to surround ourselves, since we do the hiring, with capable people we trust and who care about the course. That can take time, but it usually happens. Also, as you mature in the profession you learn when you can take a little extra time away from the job; that helps, too.<br /> <br /> We learn to use stress as a motivator or a catalyst for action. One always seems to feel better when you are facing down a stressful situation with a solution.<br /> <br /> And at some point, you arrive at the ultimate stress reliever: retirement. Nowadays I feel very relaxed and happy. About the only thing I stress out about is over a premier parking place at the UW football and basketball games, or whether someone will be in my spot and pew in church on Sunday.<br /> <br /> On these last days of winter, I am worried that my snow blower might not start for a late season snowfall, forgetting that all I really have to do is wait for it to melt.</p>