Discover how you react under high pressure

The golden egg for those who ruffle easily

Relax. There is no need to get in a flap the moment the word ’stress’ comes up. Because stress certainly does not always work against you. It can help you stay alert, sharpen your concentration and challenge you to come up with fresh angles. You have the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline to thank for all of that. Provided, at least, that they are not released into your body in excessive quantities.

Sleepless nights

That stress can lead to remarkable achievements is clear from the following three examples of famous people. Because they, more than anyone, have to deal or had to deal with the constant high pressure of the outside world. Or with the excessive pressure they placed on themselves in order to succeed. Elon Musk, as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has undoubtedly had sleepless nights over the funding of his projects. On several occasions he was even on the brink of bankruptcy. In the end that did not stop him from achieving groundbreaking successes in the car and space industries.

As deaf as a post

And what about Ludwig van Beethoven? He was as deaf as a post and hopelessly frustrated in every possible key when he composed his celebrated Ninth Symphony. Then there is Vincent van Gogh. Despite hardly picturesque afflictions such as depression and psychotic episodes, he still managed to conjure his ’Sunflowers’ and other glorious works onto the canvas.

Running around like a headless chicken

Fine. But what if stress takes hold of you to such a degree that you start running around like a headless chicken? That is the case when you end up in a work situation, or any other situation, that is excessively threatening, overwhelming or uncontrollable for you. Extreme stress can be chronic and can even persist when its cause disappeared a long time ago. That same stress can also be acute, but then so intense that it is difficult to recover from. With all the harmful consequences that entails for your mental and physical health.

Discover your stress colours

To avoid that, the seven-colour theory of MyDrives offers a way forward in the area of stress too. For your own personal development it is important to discover which colours take the upper hand in you when you are under high tension. As a brief example: people with a red driver then regularly display angry and forceful behaviour. The green driver talks more than average about things that are not going the way they should. The yellow driver over-analyses matters and makes them unnecessarily complicated.

The golden egg

Once you have insight into your dominant stress colours, you are able to free yourself from your unconscious habitual behaviour. Or: the more aware you are of your thinking and acting in extreme stress situations, the better you can adjust your response. And if you also recognise which stress colours are decisive for other people, you have the golden egg in your hands for a low-stress relationship with yourself and with the people around you.