The Necessity of Stress and Managing It

Stress is a universal language when it comes to surviving life’s ultimate challenges. While the word ‘stress’ has always maintained a negative connotation, the right amount of stress can largely benefit a person’s lifestyle or routines. Instead, stress can be a drive for individuals to improve their skills and boost their performance in multiple settings, such as in a workplace or school. It is important to learn how to hone stress into a form of motivation in order to complete tasks, meet deadlines, and attain high demands. For example, individuals cannot understand the capacity of their capabilities without the stress of critical opinions from peers and superiors. With the weight of critical opinions, individuals can be motivated to improve their skills and exceed the expectations of their peers or superiors.

In a workplace setting, some venture above and beyond, keep their head above the water, and problem solve on a daily basis, but others are yawning in their weekly staff meetings and typing aimlessly away on their computer at the office tables. To a majority of individuals, their jobs are a mandatory task of the day, like brushing your teeth or drinking water. The reward of a nine-to-five job will provide the sufficient amount of money to pay the bills and support a family, but an individual’s capabilities cannot be efficiently measured in a steady, repetitive, and possibly dull workplace setting.

Employees that stress-manage and organize their deadlines accordingly often achieve a higher productivity rate, which allows their employers to provide them with more perks. Major companies, including Facebook and Costco, offer perks to maintain a productive and engaging employee circle. Along with achieving set goals and managing the job’s workload, high-achieving employees are rewarded with financial boosts, career opportunities, and benefits, including free food, free rides to work, paid day-care, exercise sessions (usually with a gym in the workplace), and more. (source)

Moreover, stressful situations motivate people to better organize their time in order to accomplish difficult tasks. For instance, students often find themselves in stressful situations, whether it is preparing for a test, quiz, research paper, essay, or exam. Allen Cheng, a Harvard alumni, explains that “You should treat any surprises or last-minute work as a failure of planning. These increase your stress and lower the quality of your work. No last-minute homework crunch of quiz studying should be happening” (source). In result, creating a study plan accordingly, utilizing organization tools such as Google Calendar or a planner, and finding a comfortable study routine will help stress-manage difficult situations.

Sophomore Kerry Z. explained the necessity of managing stress in school. “I manage stress by confiding in the people I trust and setting aside time to do what I want [in order] to feel good about myself. [I also] believe that I can cope with the stress. Then, I would have the strength to tackle the stress head on.”

An AISG IB student, senior Selina Y., discussed different tactics of relieving stress. “Some people find it good to talk it out, [but] I prefer to take some time for myself and do something that I enjoy. Some peace and quiet does wonders for a person. A lot of people just simply sleep it off. The detrimental effect of stress is a given consensus, but it definitely motivates you to be more efficient.”

With a healthy mindset and appropriate stress-managing habits, individuals can better tackle difficult obstacles in their path.