Is Stress A Positive Force?

Welcome to the Anturas newsletter, where I share my thoughts, learnings, and failures to help you think, learn, and grow. If you enjoy it, please feel free to forward along to friends.

Quote I Loved: 

"Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result" - Will Ferrell

Things I Am Thinking About:

In last week's newsletter we talked about immediate stress (high intensity, in the moment spikes) and continuous stress (slow burn, long lasting stress). If you didn't read it you can find it here, Breaking Down Stress. 

One of our reader's wrote in with a great perspective and a question. He argued that immediate stress can be a positive force depending on how we handle it. For example, a tough situation might lead one person to give up while the same stressor might push another person to work hard and achieve greatness. For the person who achieved greatness, the immediate stress was a good thing. If we can agree that immediate stress can be good, then how do we find the right balance? How do we find the balance between a lifestyle with no stress vs. a lifestyle with continuous stress?

First, let's take a quick step back. If you have a stressor and you push through and achieve greatness, does that imply the stress was positive? For me, not necessarily. If you were miserable for months, or years, because of the stressor, the "greatness" at the end, doesn't make up for all the years of pain. If on the other hand, you grappled with the stress, enjoyed the process, and achieved greatness, I would agree, that's a positive stressor. So how do we ensure we have positive stressors?

It ultimately comes down to understanding our goals and being intentional with the systems and habits we put in place.

Let's start with goals and we'll use David Goggins as an example. David Goggins' goal is to be the most badass person on the earth and he is willing to make every sacrifice to hit that goal. As a result, he intentionally puts himself in stressful situations over and over to "harden" himself. For Goggins, he wants all the stressors he can handle, and more, because it gets him close to his goal of being the "baddest man on earth."

My goal is a little different than Goggins. I want to play lacrosse with my grandkids, so my focus is on longevity. Since my focus is on longevity, it would not make sense for me to put myself in overly stressful situations again and again because it could lead to a lifelong injury. Even if I achieved something great like a 160 mile race, if it permanently affects my body and leads to surgeries and decreased mobility, that would not be a positive stressor. On the flip side, if I never pushed myself, I would not grow muscle or push my VO2 max. Stressors are needed, but I need to be intentional with the amount of stress I put on my body (which as you can guess, is significantly less than Goggins).

The second step is setting up processes and habits to help us deal with stressors (and ultimately make them work for us).

Let's look at having children. When you have children, you know you are signing up for stress. When you look at a parent on their first child they are exhausted. They are new. They don't have systems or structure in place. It's chaos. What happens by the time they have their third child? They make it look easy! Why? Same stressors, but they have better systems and processes.

Finding the right balance of positive stress is a combination of identifying what stressors we want (e.g., lifting weights, moving the alarm clock across the room, having kids) and creating systems and processes to address that stress (e.g., focusing on recovery, developing a morning routine, setting time for yourself) 

Questions I'm Asking Myself: 

I'm trying to accomplish a lot in this "season of life." I'm growing a business, planning a wedding, and training for a 50K. As a result, I'm under a lot of stress. Are there any other methods I can employ to better handle the stress?

Favorite Photo From the Week:

Kel and I took our engagement photos! We won't get them back for another couple of weeks but here's a selfie sneak peek.

Till next week, be kind, be curious and work hard. 

Tanner