Intentional Stress: Mission

Leverage stress to build resilience.

Intentional Stress

There may be no word more ripe for a reframe than stress.

Stress is inevitable. It is also invaluable.

Stress narrows focus, increases energy, and is required for growth. Chronically mismanaged stress, on the other hand, causes countless problems such as increased all-cause mortality risk and decreased performance in any domain.

Aspects of life are undoubtedly difficult yet we often make it much harder than it needs to be. Unproductive beliefs, false assumptions, irrational fears, resistance to change, prolonged rumination, and temptation indulgence are just a few of the reasons we struggle to stay regulated in the modern world.

We know chronic stress without recovery can have detrimental effects on your health. Avoidance of stress, however, produces the same effect. Stress cannot be escaped, nor is it the enemy.

Stress is a physiologic prediction of or response to something you care about. If it doesn’t perceptually matter or affect you, it doesn’t stress you. This is true of the mind, body, and soul. Stress is neither good nor bad. Stress becomes harmful when you think it is or aren’t able to recover from it. Your understanding of and belief about stress ultimately determines whether or not it can be used to your benefit.

The brain is a predicting mechanism that is continuously attempting to keep us alive and well through a process called allostasis - the central adjustment of internal systems based on need anticipation to meet demands. Once signals are received, the brain either matches predicted needs based on past experience or reorients to help us effectively respond to any situation. Following the event, the mind continues to encode and recode as a result.

The process of allostasis and the stress response are extremely prone to adaptation based on continued experience.

The mind can be trained to better predict and effectively respond to adversity by intentionally using stress as a stimulus. Cultivate new experiences with stress to create productive predictions and subsequent responses.

Stress is natural. Your response is nurtural.

I’ve been teaching resilience for more than ten years. Initially trained in stress management, I quickly determined that simply managing stress is insufficient. Rather than teach methods to effectively respond to stress, how can one proactively prepare to leverage its benefit? The answer is simple - use it.

Resilience is the ability to effectively function with, recover from, and improve because of stress.

We all have the capacity to be resilient.

To train the skill of resilience, you must induce stress intentionally at a manageable level with prepared strategies for the purpose of getting more comfortable at what initially caused discomfort.

Your attitude toward stress dictates your resilience in response to it. The more you attempt to avoid stress, the more significant mild stressors become. The more you embrace stress, the more significant your response to any stressor becomes.

Resilience isn’t possible without stress just as courage isn’t possible without fear.

At the beginning of every month, I create a fitness challenge to build resilience. Physical training is one of my favorite ways to gain wisdom from intentional stress. It is, however, just one of the many ways you can leverage the stress response for growth.

The mission of this series is to explore methods of training mental, social, and spiritual resilience without physical exertion. For the first one, we will be working to define your mission.

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Personal Mission Statement

Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

Why do you do anything for that matter?

Is it because of external demands, perceived requirements, or desires to acquire?

While all choices carry consequence, there are no obligations. You GET to get out of bed and experience the world. Why you do this, however, must be considered.

A personal mission statement clarifies your Why. It provides a frame to anchor yourself to each day so you can approach any how on your terms. While missions may change, mission statements are ideally written so they can be applied to any circumstance. Make them simple so they can still be considered when things aren’t easy.

My mission statement is “be a good husband, father, and man.” Every thought, decision, and dilemma is considered through this lens.

Defining your mission prevents you from becoming a cog in someone else’s. The world will pressure you in many directions. Regardless of the pushes and pulls, a known mission can be executed within any context.

A personally derived purpose provides a productive perspective regardless of external demands. While you can’t control others, including those you care most about, or injuries, illness, and demands from things like your occupation, you can always control the interpretation of your thoughts and subsequent actions. A known mission filters and simplifies the control we have despite complex, dynamic, uncertain, and challenging aspects of life.

Challenge: Draft a one-sentence personal mission statement.

This will be a living document worth revisiting regularly.

Add meaning to your life by defining your mission within it.

Knowing your Why allows you to do any What no matter How.