stress

here's something interesting that i read and thought it would be good to share it with you guys:

it is friday evening and 2 young lawyers get phone calls at home. the trial date for an important case has been moved up. both of the lawyers will now have to prepare a report for the case by monday morning. it is a threatening situation for both. each must do extensive reasearch and write a complex document of some forty pages all in a single weekend. furthermore, each knows that her work will be evaluated by the firm's partners, and how well she does may greatly influence her future in the firm.

one of the lawyers find the situation extremely stressful; she feels tremendous anxiety, experiences headaches and stomach upsets, and has difficulty working. she somehow manages to produce a report, but she is not at all happy with it.

the other lawyer, although she too feels the pressure of the situation, sees it not so much as a threat but as a challenge - an oppotunity to show how good she is. she moves into the firm's office for the weekend and, sleeping only 3 hours a night, completes a brilliant report with a clear mind and a surge of energy.

this shows that stress is caused not so much by the events themselves as by the ways in which people perceive and react to events. as the greek philosopher epicetus declared almost 2000 years ago, "we are not disturbed by things, but our opinions about things." to cope with stress effectively, we often need to redefine the situation from one of threat to one of challenge or opportunity.

Tariq :: email ::
|10:18 pm|
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