Stress: Redefinitions

You know you've been there. I've been there. I've seen loved ones there. It plain sucks. It's stress and it just makes things tough. Life just isn't right at that point. But what is it? Really? This reminds me of a good line from a favored movie, "Well that's just, that's the stress talking, Dude."

I've recently rethought what stress is after reading and researching things about what career direction I should go in. One book, has been helpful, namely, Passion and Purpose: how to identify and leverage the powerful patterns that shape your work/life by Marlys Hanson with Merle Hanson (cf. their website at http://www.motivationalpattern.com/; FYI always use DealOz.com for your online book shopping... way better than Amazon in my opinion). Their book is a step by step guide in identifying your motivated abilities pattern that is based on what you enjoy doing and believe you do well at. Some have called it giftedness (http://www.thegiftednesscenter.com/) but giftedness seems to combine two things together. Your passions/motivated abilities, in my opinion is probably one of the three circles on a Venn diagram that would help you to narrow down what you should do for a career. The other two circles may be to consider your aptitudes/natural abilities (cf. http://www.aimstesting.org/) and spiritual gift or gifts (cf. 1 Cor 12; Eph 4; Rom 12; 1 Peter 4).

This is where stress comes in. I'm sure the most common definition is employed and correct in many contexts. But maybe we need to think about redefining it a bit. Hanson and Hanson writes thus:

Khalsa'a definition of stress as anything that causes us to believe that we cannot perform that which is expected of us describes quite precisely the situation of a person in a job or role that is not aligned with his/her innate abilities. Even if we are ABLE to perform the task, if we do not find the activity fulfilling to perform, it is difficult to SUSTAIN our performance without chronic stress (p 26).

Did you notice that? Stress is not doing what we were created to do. It is hard to describe what exactly we each are motivated to do, have the ability to do it well, and spiritually gifted to do so. I doubt whether one has to have a perfect match to alleviate stress, but a better match will cause less stress on the career front.

All my life I've wanted nothing more than to enjoy my job and make enough money to live on. I'll work 1/3 of my life. If I am going to do something for that much time I want to enjoy it more often than not. Will the probability be higher that I enjoy a job that uses my innate motivations, aptitudes, and spiritual gifts? I hope so. Stress is job mismatch. Stress is facing life situations that are not in line with your passions and purposes and abilities. Those innate passions, if neglected is downright dangerous if you ask me. I know a man who was on the verge of suicide due to work related stressors. I don't want to make that mistake.

Tomorrow I interview for the Dallas Police Department. If I am asked, "What was your most stressful moment on a job?" I am going to redefine stress for them. I'm going to report that any job that does not employ my motivations and aptitudes will be stressful to me, including the totality of my current job.

Thought this response might be beneficial for you to consider before your next interview. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

[Sept 30th Update] I passed the interview. Now to background investigators.