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Do You Thrive or Crack Under Pressure?
Flatline5150 writes "The New York Times has a good article on why some people thrive under stress while others crack under pressure. Among other tidbits, pessimists make great lawyers..."
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I do well under a little pressure, but if the pressure is unreasonable I will refuse to accept it.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I thrive on pressure. By choice. See, I have a little issue with this thing called procrastination. I always wait and end up doing a large amount of work at the last possible minute, it keeps me on the edge, neat :D
Honest, when my mind goes blank, and no reasonable outcome seems nearby... I get more easily swayed by distractions. Probably the dumbest thing to do...
If I come home from work and don't occupy myself with something, I'll get tired and need a nap. If I find something to do for the evening (aside from watching TV) I'm active and energetic until about 1 am (I usually get up between 6:30am and 7:00am). After doing some reading, I've found there's a good chance I have ADHD to one degree or another. I'm awaiting a doctor's appointment to see if this is the case, not that it has a major impact on my life. I have suspicions that this thrive under stress and symptoms of ADHD are very related.
I have ADD and I definitely do much better under pressure. If I don't load myself down with hours each semester, I get crappy grades. But, if I take way too many hours and never have enough time to possibly get all the homework done, I get better grades. I gotta have my time always allocated.. Otherwise I'm just completely unproductive.
For me, a little stress feels good. If I don't have anything to stress over, it feels like I'm not getting anything done.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Unlike some who link ADD to thriving on pressure that isn't the case for me. But situations that tend to be high stress for most, tend to calm me down.
Main database server has crashed and the CEO is on the line? No problem. Someone cut the fiber to this block? Eh. We gotta move from one colo to the next in 17 hours! Ok. Driving 130 MPH down long loney highways? Blah. Tornado heading this way? Another Earthquake?!@ Whatever, let's get prepared.
However while these kinds of things don't get to me I've found that emotional issues can stress me out quite quickly. Issues with my girlfriend, friends or family tend to make me all loopy and panicky, much the same way other's get with the scenarios above. I wonder if this is true for other people who strive on situational stress?
--- I do not moderate.
Stress and pressure, while similarly manifested, are distinctly different. Stress is "the bad stuff" you have to deal with while pressure is the positive. Worry over your job being outsourced is stress. Pressure is needing to make a deadline with a project to support a marketing effort, assuming the deadline is realistic. Stress is having to carry the weight of five coders not getting their job done. Pressure is being responsible for guiding the success of a project by mentoring those five coders.
For myself, I thrive on pressure, withstand stress, but even more importantly, know precisely what my limits are for both. One important point not made in the article (on brief perusal) is that while pressure is beneficial to some, even those who flourish with it have their limits. Eventually, even pressure becomes counter-productive.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
If there's no pressure, it's difficult to get started on something. Sometimes I'll just artificially create pressure by limiting resources to my tasks (perhaps unconsciously) so then I get it done better. I find when I'm under pressure, decisions are easier to make because you HAVE to decide something. You take all the information you have, mix it up in your head, and then choose one as best as you can, because you HAVE TO. Without pressure, it's hard to be motivated to decide anything.
But that's just me.
I'm like that too, so I keep up the pressure: on top of my day job as a perl programmer, I'm in lawschool (getting my bachelor this year) and recently started learning Japanese. Besides that, I've got a whole load of hobbies. And yes, I'm married, so I do need to spend time with my family.
It's not as much stress that causes me to work hard, but pressure helps me to focus and keeps me from slacking. I've found that it is slacking that causes boredom and gets me feeling stressed. Keeping busy helps me to feel good, and the variation keeps me from getting bored. Go figure.
the pun is mightier than the sword
I thrive under the pressure of using my skills and experience against the clock or to do something I've never done before. The pressure caused by a challenge is great. Yeah.. I get shitty for the last 12 hours before a big deadline, but that's pretty normal.
I crack under the pressure caused by stupid managers, antiquated processes, by being told to do something then having the resources pulled (and I don't mean restricted, I mean obliterated), having my "expert opinion" overrode by some dickwad who really doesn't have a clue how to do things, then being lumped with the blame when it doesn't work.
Maybe some people thrive on the latter. It just makes me more sympathetic for the postal workers.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Interestingly, it seems that it is the profession itself that causes the depression. In one study I read a few years back, when individuals were assessed the summer before law school, they showed rates of depression equivalent to the general population, but even after just the first year of law school, let alone once they graduated, rates of depression jumped to anywhere from 20-40 percent of the population studied.
I totally agree. I'm at attorney and in my dealings with other attorneys I couldn't help but wonder why some make millions and while other barely survive.
It certainly wasn't the education, intelligence, or looks. The one factor that all highly successful attorneys have is that they are optimists. In other words, they know they are going to win and won't let anything change that opinion.
They're almost like compulsive gamblers, except the odds are not against them.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
But never the whole thing. I don't crack easily, but I do occasionally crack; if I'm not extremely busy, I get bored and get slightly depressed.
Under stress, I am very productive until my breaking point. Once I hit my breaking point, I crack for a short period of time (a few hours to a day or two), then I'm only slightly less productive than I am at my peak. I actually do my best (and fastest) work when I'm just short of this point. Suprisingly, I'm also quite happy there, but once I go over the breaking point, even once I've pulled myself together, I'm miserable, and my productivity stays at that "slightly less than peak" level until I'm calm and relaxed (i.e., have had a decent amount of time to recover - usually a weekend; as much as a week if it was prolonged stress).
I've always thought that there might be an intentional diversity in the genetic components of human behavior, not unlike the hypervariablity found in the genetics underlying the immune system. Human society functions better in a nonstationary environment (= ice ages, floods, dry spells, changes in diet from whale blubber to potatoes) if the society is structurally non-homogeneous. Society needs risk takers and risk avoiders, optimists and pessimists, manic spenders and thrifty savers, lone achievers and gregarious team players. How else can we cope with the rich times, the poor times, the peace times, war times, the stay-at-home times, and the move-to-another-land-times.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
How true. I'm reminded of what Johnny Carson said one time in an interview when asked (something like) how was he able to get an entire one-hour show together in just a day, each and every day, when some hour-long shows that only air once a week weren't as good. His reply was that he had always found if he had a day to get ready for a show then that's what it took, and if he had a week to get ready for a show then that's how long it took -- in other words, it takes as long as it takes. Unfortunately, bosses usually don't appreciate receiving that maxim as an answer...go figure.
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everyone has there own little quirks about how they work, thats why its so important too at least find wich catagory you fit into, too many morons out there are so uneffiecient becuase they can't even figure there own work habbits out.
When i was younger, stress used to destroy me, a few times i just had breakdowns. kind of annoying.
but recently, ive done a complete turn around, and work incredibly well under pressure. i guess im turnning into my father.
I find i get the best work done when i'm stuck in the do or die position, not a lack of time, but that i know that i have to stick to my shcedual just to keep up. If i trip, i'll fall behind, and then theres nothing to keep me going.
as a really overwieght friend of mine once said "the way i do the 1km run in gym? i prentend someone is chasing me in a mack truck! squeel piggy! " (yeah i dind't get the last bit ither...).
my best memories ever (im not kidding), it a total rush i got by completeing a history project (worth 60% of my mark), in basicly one night, with the rest of my team. it was wonderful! typing non stop into the wee hours of the night, with a big smile on my face.
the downsied, is now, with trival beggining of term work, its so hard to be motivated to get it done. i can waste alot of time with simple things that i don't want to do.
i still do them though, otherwise i'll fall behind, but its unerving, when i already don't have enough time.
The things we do, becuase were lucky enough to have perspective... jeez.
I love that sort of job security. Where I work, I draft houses. I also run their network, servers, and plotters. I've worked with builders and painters, and interior decorators (my sister is our decorator) for years, so I know how to deal with all of them, and what they need to get their job done.
My official title: secretary's replacement while she's in class at the local college. Within a month of getting a part-time job there I was working full time at twice the pay, and only doing actual work maybe 3 days a week.
Sure, they could go back to a network admin contracted out for less than what I make. And they could hire a new drafter for less than what I make. But for what they would pay both of those people, and a secretary for the next few months 3 2 days a week; they could just give me a raise and spend less.
I love my job. Get paid to play with computers, and draw houses. hmm... why didn't I find this sooner?
--Forest C. Adcock--
At the University of Iowa, Student Health's two top weeks for sinus infections (and several other varieties of illness) are:
This support the theory that too much stress (or too little sleep) can lead you to be physically ill.
I've also read that depressed people get sick much more frequently.
Can too little stress do so also? Or working hard over things that seem insignificant to you? I'd guess yes. Perhaps by leading to depression (they're surely related) or perhaps by themselves.
Some people thrive under pressure because some people are dorks or adrenaline junkies. Without pressure, some people would see the emptiness of their lives for what it is.
It's incredibly obvious that nobody here knows anyone who works well under pressure.
You can call this article a piece of corporate propoganda if you like, I don't disagree completely, but you can't disregard the facts it points out. There are people like that, and I happen to be one of them. What's annoying is that everyone here has their own strange BS ideas.
I'm not a procrastinator. I don't need to have pressure put on me to work at all. I'm not someone who just forgets about my work when I go home either... I can keep thinking of a problem I am having at work, and not be stressed-out about it at all.
I don't have any solid answers as to why I can handle stress well. I think it may be more active than anything else. Once in a while, stress will get to me, and I'll start making mistakes. All I have to do is recognize that, think to myself that feeling the pressure isn't going to help, and just relax for a few seconds. That's all it takes, even when the stress is overwhelming... Recognize that your instinct to feel bad isn't necessary, and isn't useful, and you can handle anything.
It's really about nerves. Even before big performances, I don't show any signs of being nervous. Again, in the most extreme of situations, I'll start to show just the very smallest signs, but I can just focus and all the pressure goes away.
It may be linked to work ethic. I also happen to be the kind of person who will work at full-speed, even when getting very tired, practially until I fall over... Then, when everything is done, I go home, and just kick-back for a few minutes, and I'm ready to go again. Even when I'm very hungry, I don't get distracted, and I don't slow down.
Not trying to say what a wonderful person I am, just that there certainly are people who handle stress well, and the misconceptions in this discussion are immense.
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