Who needs stress? We all do. Here’s why
How stress, properly handled, can give you an edge, according to Ian Robertson, author of The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper
If you could do something to decrease your risk of memory failure, to increase your self-confidence, to be a better public speaker, to improve your brain, to help you deal with back pain, to bust out of your comfort zone, to make your children more resilient … would you do it?
What if it involved embracing what we all to our utmost try to steer clear of – namely, stress?
Yes, there’s always a catch. Think about it though – which Irish psychologist Ian Robertson, author of The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper, has done, and has studied the subject quite extensively. You might remember quoting, once or twice, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
The statement, Robertson says, “has always intrigued me”. He’s also fond of quoting golfer Tiger Woods: “I’ve always said the day I’m not nervous playing is the day I quit.”
Granted, stress before a golf tournament isn’t exactly a life-or-death situation, but the premise is along the same lines.
“All performers and musicians and sports performers know you need that edge,” says Robertson, who, as the T. Boone Pickens Distinguished Scientist at the Centre for Brain Health, spends part of his year at the University of Texas at Dallas institute and part in Ireland.