Stress: Help or Hindrance?

By now, most of us have gotten back to the swing of college life: the classes, homework, and even Sodexo. Schedules help us stay organized and on track for what we need to do each day. You may already feel stressed about all that you have to accomplish. That’s okay. You know why? Because stress is necessary to motivate us.

Don’t believe me? Think back to that time you procrastinated doing a paper. You probably figured you had enough time to work on it, telling yourself you’d get to it the next day, and suddenly you only have one more day to finish it. You keep thinking to yourself “How am I possibly going to get this finished?” But you do. What motivated you? Well, your grades for one, but you felt the pressure of the stress moving you to complete the task at hand. Although I am not advocating for procrastination, stress can help you stay on task when you need to get something done, and done fast.

Some people do their best while under pressure. They know they have to finish something, or accomplish something they don’t want to do, but they do it anyway! They generally do it well. The pressure allows them to be able to take on their tasks. Stress works the same way. In “Who Says Stress is Bad for You,” reporter Mary Carmichael said, “The stress response-the body’s hormonal reaction to danger, uncertainty or change-evolved to help us survive, and if we learn how to keep it from overrunning our lives, it still can.”

You have to learn how to manage your stress. Obviously, if you are too stressed out to the point of this affecting your health, then that’s a problem. However, the right amount of stress can help motivate you to accomplish things. How else will you be able to do them? Maybe you are a really good student, but even great students get stressed. Everyone does, and oddly enough, it can help you. It can be a good thing, when used correctly.