I was reading the Los Angeles Times newspaper yesterday and was intrigued by the page one story about USC athletic director Pat Haden. As most sports fans know, his job is a very busy one overseeing a 21 sport program with an annual budget over $100 million dollars. In the last several weeks, he fired his head football coach, met with school officials/team members/reporters to discuss the issue, and flew to South Bend, Indiana for the USC game with Notre Dame. With his busy schedule, he briefly fell ill before the game. This is a man with a pacemaker and a history of heart disease. What was particularly noteworthy was to learn that the athletic director role is not his only one. He holds more than a dozen outside posts on numerous nonprofit organizations, corporate boards, and other organizations. Focusing only on the health issue, his situation raised the title question: "How much stress can you manage?" You can answer that for yourself. When he was asked how he can handle his schedule, in the very last line of the article, Mr. Haden was quoted as saying "I'm built to work". Some might say that he has taken on far too much responsibility and stress and was long overdue for a stress health crisis. While that may be so, it got me thinking about how we manage our own life demands, whether large or small. How much is too much?

We all know that each of us is unique with a set of life experiences which may help or hinder us in managing life stresses. But there are other factors which affect our vulnerability to stress. These include our personality, hardiness, self-efficacy, and core beliefs about events (attributions).

Type A & Type B Personality. Over 40 years ago, cardiologists Friedman and Rosenman described two personality types with differing proneness to risk for heart attack. The person with a Type A personality is competitive, wants to be recognized, seeks development and advancement, looks to achieve goals and tends to rush in order to finish tasks. Does this sound like anyone you know? On the other hand, the person with Type B personality was opposite to that of the Type A person. It's not that the Type B person has no motivation but rather is described as calm, relaxed and non-competitive. In a longitudinal study with males, the cardiologists found that there was far greater incidence of heart attack in the Type A group. Individuals classified as Type B managed stress better than Type A persons. Many stress management programs include components to help individuals become more calm and relaxed, such as the Type B group.
Hardiness. It is well known that part of the negative stress response involves a feeling of loss of control over your world, whether personal or work. People described as "hardy" have been found to have three characteristics: 1) Control - you see yourself in charge of your world and not the reverse; 2) Commitment - you confront problems and won't stop until you solve them; and 3) Challenge - you see change in your life not as a threat but rather as a challenge. In studies of people divided into "hardy" and "non-hardy", results have shown that the hardy groups were less frequently ill and responded to stressors in a more positive way. Do you employ the three C's in your world in coping with life's stressors?
Self-Efficacy. This term was used by Dr. Albert Bandura whose work I studied as a graduate student. Self-efficacy refers to a person's tendency to perceive a sense of control in a stressful situation. Instead of saying "I can't handle this", the self-efficacious person has a history of experiences leading them to feel able to confront stress situations more positively and say "I am able to handle stress and I can handle this one as well". This all has to do with your internal beliefs. If you have low self-efficacy, you are more likely to have more negative feelings under stress and manage events less well. Would you describe your view of self in stress situations as one of self-efficacy?
Core beliefs. These are similar to the concept of self-efficacy but more broad in terms of your life. Core beliefs are your more general beliefs about your likeability and capability in many areas of your life. Your beliefs enable or limit you. They create a negative reaction to stress or limit the negative reaction. If your view of you is one of self-doubt and self-deprecation, you will have a more difficult time dealing with a challenge such as an illness, relationship problem, or work demand. Are you able to question your negative or limiting beliefs? If so, you will manage your stressors more positively.

We all have a capacity to change. Numerous studies have shown that even under the most stressful circumstances, the physiological manifestations of stress (hypercortisol levels, for example) can be changed by manipulating the psychological context of the stress and the attributes given it by you. These include personality, hardiness, self-efficacy, and core beliefs. So how much stress is too much? As you can see, it is not a simple answer and varies by individuals. However, you can handle more than you might have thought using some of the ideas above. How well is Mr. Haden doing? How well are you doing? Stress is a choice. You may not be able to avoid a stressful event but you can change your response to it in a more positive way.

Dr. Paul Longobardi

For information on this and other topics, visit my website at www.successandmindset.com.