When John Fuller’s truck engine locked up three weeks before Landstar’s 2024 BCO All-Star Celebration, he was stressed. “My wife and I couldn’t really incur $160,000 worth of debt for a truck. Of our five children, one son is preparing for college in the next year, and another is going into high school,” recalls the Landstar Two Million Mile Safe Driver. “It was looking pretty grim. Without a truck, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t sleep. I was stressed!” As it turned out, the second he won the brand-new truck in the All-Star Truck Giveaway, his stress was gone.

But most people aren’t that lucky. Truck repairs are a fact of life on the road – a fact that costs more than just the parts and labor for owner-operators. Repairs also cost in terms of time off the road and the means to make money – a leading stressor for most people.

While some stress is temporary and not all stress is bad, long-term stress can lead to health problems, according to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Preventing and managing long-term stress can lower the risk for other conditions — like heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure and depression. Whether someone already has a health condition or not, experts on health.gov suggest a conversation with a doctor about stressors and the best stress reduction methods for you – whether that’s exercise or the power of positive thinking.

Over the last 20 years, Judith Moskowitz, a research psychologist at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has been researching a set of eight skills and practices to help people increase positive emotions and decrease anxiety, even through the most difficult of times.

• Positive Events: Notice when positive things happen in your life. Moskowitz suggests making a list at the end of each day.
• Savoring: Amplify those positive events by thinking about them.
• Gratitude: Appreciate the things, people and events that bring you happiness. Moskowitz encourages everyone to challenge themselves to make the list as long as possible and keep adding to it.
• Mindfulness and Mindful Meditation: Focus on the present moment without judgment. That doesn’t mean you need to sit crisscross for 15 minutes. It could just be deep breathing during a walk (or even in the repair shop), without ruminating on your stressor, making a to-do list or any other thoughts that steal your focus.
• Positive Reappraisal: Find the silver lining in situations. One idea, according to Moskowitz, is to realize that things could have been worse.
• Self-Compassion: Treat yourself with kindness.
• Personal Strength: Recognize your talents and abilities.
• Attainable Goals: Make plans that set you up for success.

Landstar Business Capacity Owner (BCO) Scott White says that throughout his 38 years as a professional driver, he’s used all of these tactics, as well as other methods, and he’s finally able to say he’s pretty stress free. “It took a long time to get here,” says White. “But I realize now that stress is self-inflicted – it’s the pressure we put on ourselves and others by creating unrealistic expectations.” He says that once he realized you can only control your reaction to situations, life got easier, or at least less stressful. 

His advice for BCOs stressed out by traffic and making delivery times is also on Moskowitz’s list — focus on attainable goals. “Leave earlier, drive at night instead of rush hour, ask for all of the information on the load that you need, communicate, and remember that you have all of the answers on your phone – call, search the internet – just deal with the situation at hand.”

When someone tells White they are stressed, he immediately asks them what they were stressed about on a random date he picks. And he keeps going with more random dates and more questions. “I’m sure you were stressed about something on January 23, 2022 – what was it?” He says the point is made when the person realizes that their stress is fleeting and that they continue moving forward. “So, why worry? Most things get resolved.”

At the top of the list for both the BCO and the researcher is positivity. “I post something positive on social media every day,” says White. “And I don’t stress about what anyone says about it!”