Everything, (including stress) is relative.
It’s always interesting to compare the stress you might feel in your job with the stress someone else might feel in their job. Notice I use ‘in’ your job, not ‘from’ your job. The thing is, most of stress is caused by internal, rather than external situations. Often the actual level of stress you feel has not much to do with real seriousness of the situation.
To illustrate this point, when I ever commented that my day had been stressful, my dad would ask me:
‘Did anyone die?’
This was an entirely relevant question for his job. You see, my dad worked as a doctor for many years, often being called out in the middle of the night to attend road accidents, heart attacks and home births. My dad’s rather unique view on what makes a good day was that no one died, at least not without him doing all that he could within his professional scope.
And the strange thing is, I think most of the time, my dad worked with less stress in these situations than the average office worker. In fact, as things became more serious, my dad would become calmer.
I think the ‘did anyone die’ is still a good question to ask, even if you’re not working in life and death emergencies. I think it’s a good question because it helps it put things into perspective. And perspective is a wonderful way to immediately banish stress.
