“I can handle stress. To tell you the truth, I thrive on stress and deadlines. They give me the kickstart I need to perform.”
You can be sure that such a statement in a boardroom situation, would attract many nods of approval. Let’s call our corporate junkie Jimmy, a senior manager in a large firm. He meets his deadlines, even the unrealistic ones, he works late hours, doesn’t take all his annual leave, and is the boss’ blue-eyed boy. He is the one you could trust with unscheduled last-minute jobs. He does not say no and will never let you down.
The fact that Jimmy’s family life is suffering, that he is losing out on his children’s soccer matches, is seen as par for the course of climbing the corporate ladder. He is scheduled for more training courses and the company shrink helps him to raise his stress tolerance with the help of quick-fix skills and techniques.
The fact that Jimmy’s marriage could be on the rocks and his children have lost contact with him is not mentioned in any performance appraisal. What Jimmy really needs to learn, is to lower his tolerance to stress. Because stress rises to the tolerance level – the more you can take, the more will get put onto your plate. This is a rule of life.
A stressful life is not only unhealthy, it drains a person’s existence of joy and meaning. The only way to combat this downhill slope is to gain an awareness of your stress levels and notice when your schedule becomes too hectic and unbalanced.
Instead of ticking off an unrealistic to-do-list at the end of every day, you should make time to re-value your actions and decide whether this is what you want for your life. Have you become a prey of the achiever syndrome, paying dearly in quality of life?
Lowering your tolerance to stress will allow you time to relax, think and go for head-clearing walks. This will release your creativity and your ability to deal with the necessary stress in a far better way.
