Stress isn’t pressure. That’s a simple fact, true by definition – but it’s not how people perceive stress.
The definition we use is this: stress is pressure you can’t cope with. In other words, no matter how much pressure you’re under, it’s not stress if you (feel that you) can cope. What that means is that there’s no such thing (in this sense) as a ‘high stress job’. You can have a high pressure job, sure, but if you can handle it, it’s not stressful.
Brain surgery is high pressure, yet I’ve never met a stressed brain surgeon. Why? Because they are confident they can do what they do. That means it’s ‘just’ pressure.
On the other hand, if you don’t think you can cope, it’s stress, no matter how little pressure you’re under, objectively.
What does that mean in practice? Well for starters it means we can stop telling ourselves we’ve got a high stress job… because that builds expectation of getting stressed.
And what do expectations do, all too often? Become self-fulfilling prophesies, that’s what!
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