Column: Getting Command of Life’s Stress (1/17/2021)

Work is stressful, our music is equally stressful, movies are only really entertaining if they have an element of unknown (stress) carrying them along. And we wonder why we are so stressed?

When you hitch a ten-thousand pound trailer to a truck, the truck is under serious stress, whether it feels like it or not. The same could be said of you and me.

We only talk about “stress” when we feel overwhelmed, but according to a certain medical website, stress exists anytime there is a stressor (a stress-causing factor) exerted upon you. 

Stress is natural, and can be good, and it happens every day. But we often find ourselves victim to it, not commanders of it.

Let’s work on that.

I remember being younger and competing in classical piano competitions and feeling absolutely strung-out stressed, and I was taught to channel that feeling and adrenaline into focus, into bettering my performance. 

We all carry loads, therefore we all put stress onto our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls. Sometimes we stress them out so much that part of us breaks and we start to feel “stressed out.” 

But I think it’s very rare for a company, leader, or co-worker to stop and identify the stressor and ask whether or not it is healthy and useful. To master your stressors and command them, now that is a true pilot in the storm.

There are acute stressors (hard deadlines, sprints, really heavy lifts) and there are chronic stressors (slow-burns that wear you down). I have found it very helpful to list the stressors in my life and categorize those things as acute or chronic, necessary or unnecessary.

If you do that, then I have found myself prepared to lift when it’s time to lift, and rest when it’s time to rest, and be thankful for it. 

The thing is, stress is a byproduct of challenges. If you lift a ton, you’ll feel the stress of the lift. 

But too much stress can break you.

Ten years of chronic stress, un-commanded, is what eventually leads to a momentary collapse or bad health or other negative symptoms.  

To take it one step further, that same medical website defines anxiety as stress that continues once the load has been lifted. 

Anxiety is stress in memory. 

I remembered just how stressful performances were, so if I didn’t control myself, each performance got more tense than the last. Practicing became a chore because I couldn’t stop thinking about the stress of that upcoming performance.

Anxiety is when you let the stress overcome the memory and ruin it. 

But if you load the truck up with as much weight as it can stand and tow it, the weird thing about trucks is, it won’t get any stronger. It actually does the opposite and slowly loses capacity.

Weird thing about humans is they do actually get stronger. 

You go the gym and stress your body at a healthy pace, and you will get stronger faster than you think. Too much stress will break you, but not enough will ruin you.

Mastering stress and commanding it for good is the only way to tow the load, and this is something we need to spend more time strategizing about.