The Goldilocks Paradox: When Stress is Just Right
“People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43% higher risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful for your health.” Kelley McGonigal*
Kelley went to on to say, “People who did not view stress as harmful … had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study.”
Stress doesn’t kill you, what you believe does.
Image by house of legacy from Pixabay
The Goldilocks Paradox:
In the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks finds a bowl of porridge, a chair, and a bed that are just right. She finds the ideal state.
How much stress is ideal?
Factors that impact ideal stress levels:
#1. Cognitive demand.
High stress hampers problem solving. Low arousal is conducive for intellectually rigorous activities.
#2. Stamina.
High arousal states keep you going longer than normal. Then you crash. Sometimes you get sick.
#3. Experience.
When you give your first performance review you can’t sleep the night before. When you’ve given performance reviews for years, optimal stress brings out your best.
#4 Challenge and skill:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi researched the flow state. The key is finding a balance between perceived challenge and perceived skill. (Read, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.)
Optimal performance requires stress.
- Low challenge, low skill activities bore you.
- Low challenge, high skill activities are low stress.
- High challenge, low skill tasks cause anxiety and stress.
- High challenge, high skill results in intense focus and optimal performance.
Image by Clavellin from Pixabay
The most important thing about stress:
What you believe about stress can kill you.
Mindset shapes response.
When you think stress is bad for you – it is. When you think stress brings out your best – it does.
How has stress improved your performance?
How has stress contributed to the performance of people on your team?
Special thanks to Kristi for mentioning a Ted Talk by Kelley McGonigal yesterday in the comments on Leadership Freak. Kristi sent me on a learning mission that is reflected in today’s post.
Still curious:
*Kelley McGonigal’s Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en
Research on the impact of belief on stress.
Crum-Akinola-Martin-Fath-2017-Stress-Mindset-Anxiety-Stress-and-Coping.pdf
We teach this during BSA National Youth Leader Training about the phases of team development. Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. All which correlate to your discussion of stress.
Optimal performance requires stress.
Low challenge, low skill activities bore you.
Low challenge, high skill activities are low stress.
High challenge, low skill tasks cause anxiety and stress.
High challenge, high skill results in intense focus and optimal performance.
Thanks Jim. Scouting contributed to my journey when I was a kid. And you’re right. Team formation is stressful.
Love the additional tie-ins to stress and optimizing performance. Thanks, Dan! In addition to my business profession, one of my many “side” roles is teaching psychology to high school students, and I show that Ted Talk in my class as we discuss the psychology of stress and its impact on us. We have to challenge ourselves to continue to grow, but we have to have the right mindset about it, or it becomes easy to get overwhelmed and angry about the challenges we face. It’s always amazing to me how much it matters what we tell ourselves!
How has stress improved my performance?
Stress is an emotional and physical reaction to the challenges I face. If I believe I can keep my emotions under control and use my creativity to solve the problem, I’m likely to succeed.
Stress has forced me to improve my emotional intelligence and my ability to focus on the actions needed to make progress.
I really like the emphasis on stress in this posting. Stress of itself is not what affects our health, but our attitude towards stress that may not always be healthy. I work in the IT field and some stress in my job enables me to rise up to the challenge and shift into higher gear.