Is Stress Always Bad?

Are you stressed out?

A study conducted by the American Psychological Association in 2010 indicated that 44 percent of people surveyed reported that their stress levels had increased over the previous five years.

A follow up study in 2011 indicated that the number rose to 49 percent. An article about this study stated that chronic stress, “interferes with your ability to function normally over an extended period”.

If you feel stressed out, you know the symptoms: sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, apathy, increased or decreased appetite, and many other ill effects.

Is stress always a bad thing?

As someone who has been feeling extremely “stressed out” for the last year or so, I would normally say yes.

The long-term health effects worry me. The physical and emotional discomfort bother me when I dwell on stress.

I feel it in my chest, my gut, my shoulders, and like a pressure in my head.

I fantasize about living a stress-free life on a warm sandy beach in the Caribbean. The skies are always blue and the shore is dotted with breeze swayed palm trees and the ocean is always calm.

I’m convinced that life would be perfect under those circumstances.

Perhaps there is another side to this topic of stress though. Check out this video, “Find Your Strength – Motivational Video 2016”:

 

There is a good lesson to take away from this video.

Stress can propel us.

Our life ambition should not be the elimination of stress, but rather achievement of the goals that we seek in spite of the challenges that face us.

Stress can be an incentive and fuel us to make positive changes.

This applies to many different kinds of stress.

Like many of you, my day job is one source of stress and frustration for me. In turn, that stress motivates me to work on my various side businesses and investment endeavors.

Those “side hustles” are not without their own stress though.

I’m in the midst of launching my first private label Amazon product and it requires many disjointed steps coordinated, at times, internationally. There have been setbacks and frustrations, but I keep driving forward because my goal is to be a successful entrepreneur.

When that product does become successful, that won’t be the end of my stress. There will be competitors. There will be sales fluctuations.

Ultimately, I’ll need to scale my business, add new segments, or pivot entirely. It’s a never ending cycle.

Investing is the same way. Even if you’re wildly successful in real estate or the stock market, there is always going to be some level of stress.

In the aforementioned video, the word “volatility” was used. Being a stock options trader, it instantly caught my ear.

The message was clear: Volatility is required for growth.

Have truer words ever been spoken?

Be it real estate, stocks, or any other asset class, volatility makes some people very rich. Conversely, it makes others very poor.

Why do some win when volatility is high and others lose?

The answer is two-fold.

The first reason is that some people don’t have a strategy. Most people with retirement accounts have no idea what they are invested in and simply contribute with hopes that their account will have appreciated sufficiently by time they seek to retire. My co-contributor Peter has written many articles on why this strategy is a farce, so I won’t regurgitate what has already been said on that subject.

The second reason volatility causes growth is because it creates opportunity. President John F. Kennedy once said, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”

These are wise words worth remembering.

Volatility in a market, within our personal lives, or within our professional lives often appears to be a crisis.

Rather than focusing on the stress we are experiencing as a result of that crisis, perhaps we would be better served by focusing that stressful energy towards identifying the opportunities that the volatility has created.

Maybe the opportunity is simply the personal growth that comes from dealing with an obstacle or general adversity.

The opportunity might be more concrete in the form of potential capital gains, new market share, or a new job.

When things look most grim, we need reconsider how we view the situation.

The key here is to re-frame how we think about stress.

We can focus on the negative energy we are experiencing or we can redirect those feelings to a positive outlet.

Re-framing the negative value of stress into something positive puts us in the driver’s seat.

If we seek constructive things to do with our stress instead of just carrying it, we will all be healthier for the effort. We will also be setting ourselves up for future success, which as you probably know by now is not instant.

Just keep driving and never forget that you’re the one steering your life’s course.

If you enjoyed this article, please use the button below to share with your friends.

If you would like more content from JPCashFlow.com, be sure to subscribe to our email list and follow us on social media.

Thanks for your readership!