What the Hell Is Properly Stressed?

Stress sign. You and other people in circles. You are stressed because of interaction with people.
Interaction with people brings stress.

Oh man… I can’t breathe… I am screwed… What if I have COVID!?
How am I going to finish the PhD project? How is my manager going to say about this? What am I going to do???

It was a Monday night on July 20, 2020. COVID was in full swing in Sonoma County, and I was having a full-on panic attack. As a 30-year-old young professional living by myself, working full-time, and studying for my PhD, the stress finally caught up to me.

I am used to being stressed. To me, stress motivates me to study more, do more research, and work harder. But this time was different. With the COVID uncertainty and stay-at-home order, I went from just being stir-crazy to receiving a gasping-for-air panic attack.

Looking up recent articles shows that I was not alone in my experience of over-stress. One headline actually reads, “Why It's Getting Harder For Young Professionals To Stay Mentally Healthy.” Then the idea hits me.

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Properly Stressed: A blog that prescribes insightful, actionable articles that help over-stressed young professionals become properly stressed.

This blog breaks down the stress of a young professional into 3 main sources: the work, the personal, the future. Corresponding to the sources, there are the 3 types of guides: Work Dynamics, Wellness 2.0, and Engineer Your Future.

To illustrate each guide, let’s start with a circle that represents you. And another circle that represents the rest of the population, as shown in Fig. 1 below.

Two circles. You. Other people. overlap area.
Fig. 1: The overlap between the two circles is the people you interact with. 

The overlapping area between the two circles indicates the people you interact with on a regular basis. Among the people you have interactions with, undoubtedly, some of them are from work.

Wellness 2.0

As shown in Fig. 2, Wellness 2.0 is the guide that discusses the interactions between you, yourself, and your non-work folks. They can be family members, friends, or even friends with benefits and money.

Two circles with red overlap. You. Other people. Wellness 2.0
Fig. 2: Wellness 2.0 addresses the interactions between you, yourself, and other non-work people in your life.

In Wellness 2.0, my main focus will be sharing ideas that improve your relationship with YOU. Once you are at peace with yourself, we will start looking at extending your peaceful self to others around you.

The goals for Wellness 2.0 are to:

  • discover your self-identity and purpose
  • build authentic connections with others
  • navigate relationships with family, friends and money

Work Dynamics

Work Dynamics, shown in Fig. 3, is the guide that discusses the interactions between you and your colleagues, your managers, and (in the future) your subordinates. In Work Dynamics, I will share my experience and learning from being in corporate America. You will also get to hear about my management experience as the manager of the cadets.

Work dynamics. You. Other People. Wellness 2.0. Two circles overlapping with red and blue.
Fig. 3: Work Dynamics talks about the nuances when interacting with people at work.

In Work Dynamics, the goals are to

  • rethink work performance
  • build authentic (work) connections
  • create realistic expectations

Engineer Your Future

Shown in Fig. 4, Engineer Your Future is the guide that talks about (you guessed it) your future. As an individual, each of us can be identified as a causal system. A causal system is a system where the output depends on past and current inputs but not future inputs. In other words, your future depends on what has happened to you and what you do now.

Two circles with red blue overlap. You. other people. Work Dynamics. Engineer your future.
Fig. 4: Engineer You Future reviews your past, takes care of now so you can become the best future you.

We all have things happened to us: the good, the bad, the traumatic. Your future will look very different depending on how you process these past events. Because of our causal nature, how you treat yourself now also changes the quality of the future you.

To engineer your future, one has to:

  • Review the past
  • Grow as a person
  • Make wise decisions

Once the three sources of stress are well managed, I am sure the over-stressed young professionals will be properly stressed. If you are looking to become properly stressed, to be motivated, and to be excited for tomorrow, subscribe now so you don’t miss out on future posts and exclusive insights from everyday professionals.

It is now June 28, 2022. A Tuesday. I am wrapping up my first post. I had finished my PhD. I didn’t get COVID (knock on wood). And I am 49 days away from finishing my required Taiwanese military service as the manager of the cadets. Am I stress-free? Of course not. I have the proper amount of stress (see what I did there?).

More than anything, I feel the urge to share my experience and thoughts with the over-stressed young professionals out there. Yes, I want to help you become properly stressed.

Yours truly stressed properly,  

Tim Wang Lee, 7:54PM 6/28/22 in Taiwan