Handling Stress by Jesse C.
One of my core beliefs is how you act under stress shows who you really are.
Throughout everyone's life, there will be points where they are put into a stressful situation. How
well they handle them shows people who they are. If someone breaks down when put in a tough
position, others might not see them qualified for a job position due to them being unreliable in
important problem-solving positions. On the other hand, if someone responds in a calm manner
to stressful challenges, people might see that as a good quality and be more likely to hire or
promote you. There have been many instances throughout my life where I've had to deal with
problems that cause stress. I feel that I have dealt with those instances in a very calm manner
and that has led me to make it out of those instances and leave a positive impression of who I
am to people.
One time in the camp where I was working during the summer, my boss wanted to go
out to eat for lunch, so he left me in charge of the area while he was out for an hour or two.
Everything started out fine until one of the people started an argument with another person
about him stealing a plastic flamingo from him. The argument started to get heated and was
becoming a bad situation. I made sure to handle it calmly and told the one who started it to calm
down and go back to his tent to cool down. He instead got even more mad and stormed off,
swearing and flipping people off on his way out. At that point, I was pretty stressed, but I still
remained calm and went to try and settle the issue before it got any worse. Eventually, I caught
up to him while he was trying to jump over a fence, and managed to talk with him and calm him
down. If I were to have handled the incident in a panicked way, he most likely wouldn't have
settled down and the problem would have gotten even worse than it was before. When my boss
came back, he was impressed with how I handled what happened and gave me more
opportunities to be in charge. The next year when I came back, I was even offered a promotion.
That is how stress can show who you are and can help benefit you. In that case,
because I handled the situation well, my employers decided to give me more leadership
opportunities. They were able to tell from how I handled that problem that I could handle other
problems well. So being calm and collected when dealing with challenges that can be stressful,
can ultimately lead to getting a positive view about you.
