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Wait, what? Stress making you happy? Is it opposite day? Not exactly. According to the new book Rush: Why You Need and Love the Rat Race by former White House economic adviser Todd Buchholz, more stress, not less, is the key to keeping humans happy.
Why? Buchholz claims that the current shift towards seeking relaxation, maintaining work-life balance and eliminating stress is backwards, and that accepting the "rat race" through competition and hard work is what actually brings happiness in the end. In this BBC News article, Buchholz takes umbrage with the folks who think there's too much stress in today's world: "They ignore human nature. We don't flourish when we're sitting on our bums drinking beer and dreaming of vacation...we've evolved to handle stress." It's a pretty extreme view, but worth investigating.
In Financial Times' writer Lucy Kelleman's own discussion of Rush, she humorously points out her personal beef with the onslaught of happiness literature available that suggests we need to work less to be happy: "Working hard makes you feel better about yourself and, after a prolonged period of hard slog, you feel sufficiently virtuous to enjoy a bout of self-indulgence with the gayest abandon." That's certainly one way to look at it!
It all depends on the person, I think. Stress isn't objective; it affects us all differently. If feeling a bit stressed is your natural state and it makes you happy, then go for it. Some people truly thrive on that energy. Alternately, many others feel pushed to the brink by modern stress levels and are happier with a more relaxed lifestyle. It's all about creating a balance that works for you.
What do you think? Is it possible to draw the line between being motivated by stress and being ruled by it? Does stress make you happy or crazy? Let's talk about it!
