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How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

theguardian.com

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Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#41

Post by choxi »

hyp0 wrote: post #40
read wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What popped out for me was different: - A cool trick by the headteacher is to be available: to be at the school gate at the start and end of every day. - Wisdom by the conciliator: stress is created when people aren't in control. - Diver: reads; and being tired helps restore calm . - TV guest booker: people have their own demons, which have a habit of appearing when they're faced with going on live TV . And then... e…

> stress is created when people aren't in control. I think the "Serenity Prayer" is spot on, even though it reads like a 3-part joke with a punchline (paraphrased): Don't try to change what you can't change Try to change what you can change Learn which is which Because if you get them mixed up, it's either frustrating or immobilizing. Of course, you often can't know til you try, the very process of learning. Learning…

The version of it I've always heard is:

    God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
    The courage to change the things I can,
    And the wisdom to always know the difference.

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#42

Post by GigabyteCoin »

When I began reading about the football coach Chris Wilder who is almost dead-last in his league and totally calm about it... I immediately thought of Bob Knight.

Best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team from 1971-2000. He retired as the winningest NCAA Division I mens coach of all time. The NCAA Div I mens basketball league is arguably one of the most difficult to maneuver and most diverse sports leagues in the entire world. He was certainly not known for being "calm" [0].

All I'm saying is that "being calm has it's place".

Perhaps Chris Wilder could be wildly successful on the football pitch if he left his calm demeanor at the door?

[0] http://youtu.be/7Qxu5cvW-ds?t=1m20s

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#43

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Einstalbert wrote: post #14
visakanv wrote: post #2

TL;DR: Football manager: Be careful about your information diet. Stop bringing everything home. And... alcohol? =\ Headteacher: Policy of being calm and non-confrontational. (But how?) Runs, which is therapeutic. Spends 5 minutes reflecting every day. Concilator (?): Represent the best side of both sides of the conflict. Seek common ground. If there's anger in the room, it's not me: "people are angry because they're…

Ah yes, the Diver philosophy. Let me get right on that. Anyone else want to work a fourth of the year?

It sounds great until you get to the part where the 1 month of work is spent living in a 2.5x7m box with 11 other dudes. I'm pretty sure that's smaller than my living room.

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#45

Post by agumonkey »

nnq wrote: post #7
gaius wrote: post #3

Saturation diver: risk of death A&E doctor: risk of someone else's death TV booker: risk of a guest not showing up Doesn't really compare, does it?

It does compare. People have a MIN and a MAX level of stress, and unfortunately they usually calibrate these to the most stressful situation they usually encounter : the TV booker will feel the same level of stress when a guest is not showing up that the diver feels when he knows something went wrong and he's probably going to die. The key is realizing that unfortunately this is your natural tendency, to set you MAX…

I disagree. There are relative psychological scales, and then there are physical ones.

Anything critical under water (in the sky, ...) is life threatening, it doesn't trigger the same things in me (and I believe in anybody) at all.

A life changing event that will make you and the people you care about fall hard is one thing, death is another.

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#46

Post by rquantz »

JshWright wrote: post #39
nickthemagicman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks a lot like being an astronaut, except instead of PhDs from MIT running the show, you have Bob from South Philly whose favorite food is a cheeseburger with donuts for a bun.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bob has an easier time making the right call without second-guessing himself when things go sideways. In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position…

Do you think astronauts (or people making decisions on the ground) have a tendency to make the wrong call when things go sideways? They train exhaustively for just about any possible emergency, and if they can't train the panic out of you, you do not go to space.

You can argue about the hubris involved in the Columbia or Challenger disasters, but in the heat of the moment, I would trust the person who has trained their entire life and was selected from a pool of thousands for their supreme skills, talent, and temperament. These are not nervous nelly academics we're talking about here.

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#48

Post by robotresearcher »

rquantz wrote: post #46
JshWright wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bob has an easier time making the right call without second-guessing himself when things go sideways. In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position…

Do you think astronauts (or people making decisions on the ground) have a tendency to make the wrong call when things go sideways? They train exhaustively for just about any possible emergency, and if they can't train the panic out of you, you do not go to space. You can argue about the hubris involved in the Columbia or Challenger disasters, but in the heat of the moment, I would trust the person who has trained the…

This is exactly what Col. Chris Hadfield, former commander of the ISS and general type-A++ person, describes in his book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything".

It's insane how prepared they are. In fact, it was hard for me to learn many lessons from the book, because the astronaut experience is so different from every day life. I just don't get to try things 1000 different ways and debrief with fellow geniuses every time. Real life seems to involve quite a bit of muddling through with barely adequate experience.

A good read if you want a glimpse into the mind of the ultra-high-achiever, crazy work ethic, moustachioed Canadian hero.

Re: How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs

#50

Post by JshWright »

rquantz wrote: post #46
JshWright wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bob has an easier time making the right call without second-guessing himself when things go sideways. In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position…

Do you think astronauts (or people making decisions on the ground) have a tendency to make the wrong call when things go sideways? They train exhaustively for just about any possible emergency, and if they can't train the panic out of you, you do not go to space. You can argue about the hubris involved in the Columbia or Challenger disasters, but in the heat of the moment, I would trust the person who has trained the…

That's my point exactly... They didn't learn to make those snap decisions in an MIT classroom, they learned them through thousands of hours of hands-on, practical simulations and real life events. Just like Bob...
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