Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion. ~ Simon Sinek
Hunter Powers: Welcome to The One, I'm your host Hunter Powers, broadcasting live from our nation's capital D.C. Proper, Washington, D.C. The One Idea today comes from Simon Sinek and he says, "Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress, working hard for something we love is called passion." But the question is to what degree is this statement true and how can we apply it? I think this is a really interesting idea because we all experience stress. There's something in our lives that we refer to as stressful, and then there are people that seem to be better at dealing with stress. And probably, the biggest thing that people associate with stress is work. Maybe that's my take on it and maybe an average person doesn't. But I think, I think that's where a lot of stress comes from, is work. "Today was a stressful day," and this quote then again begs the question of does that suggest that you've been working on something with a lot of energy that you don't really care that much about?
Hunter Powers: And then, the people that seem to be better at dealing with the stress, the people that seem to just kind of stay calm and go with it, does that suggest a greater level of passion, given that they're working hard, a greater level of passion for the activity at hand, right. Is stress a secret signal about someone's true feelings regarding something? It's an interesting idea. So working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Do I agree with this statement? So the question comes, do you ever experience stress about something that you do care a lot about. And it's got to be a kind of a, you know, shades of gray. I'm going to stick with a job angle. Maybe we'll go in a life angle a little bit later, but you probably care a great deal about having your job. And maybe it's the current activity. That's the thing that you don't really care about. That's what's creating the stress.
Hunter Powers: Or maybe it's the nature, the nature of the position, a lack of autonomy in what you're doing. Or, you're told, "Execute this task." And so, perhaps that is what's removing the care angle and then causing the stress, right. Because another way of saying working hard for something we don't care about is called stress, would be working hard for something we're not engaged in is called stress, or being forced, forced to work, that's when you find stress. If you're hyper engaged in something, it's not stress so you don't experience it as stress.
Hunter Powers: I'm reminded of a study that was done on, this was performance anxiety amongst sports professionals, and the question that this study was looking at was do the elite athletes experience, for lack of a better word, stage fright or performance anxiety before they go out to a roaring crowd to do what they do? And how does that compare with the average person who goes out, who goes up on stage, who goes out to perform? Do the superior athletes have some magic trick or something genetically imbued in them, or some learned trait over the years of handling this, I don't know. Some people would call it stress.
Hunter Powers: And what they did, was take an MRI image of their brains to look at the brain activity right before they go out, and then they compare that with the amateur who talked of experiencing a great amount of anxiety, a great amount of stage fright before they went out there to perform. And they found that the MRIs looked nearly identical between the amateur and the professional. But in talking to them, there was a distinct difference. The amateur experiences stage fright, experiences performance anxiety, and the professional experiences excitement. "I'm excited," they would say. Amateur, "I'm nervous, I'm nervous man." Professional, "I'm excited man. I'm excited." What's going on in their brain was identical, it was just the word that they were using to describe it, and perhaps that word, or that framing, or that perspective is what leads to distress.
Hunter Powers: The second part of the quote, working hard for something we love is called passion. And I think this is the easiest part of this quote to to deal with, because when you are in the zone, when what you're doing is so fulfilling, it definitely doesn't fall under stress. Like, I can't think of any example where something is a great passion, that what you're doing is a great passion and it comes off as stress. I'm thinking of, maybe if what you were doing somehow had a risk of destroying the passion. Let's pick something absurd. You're really into collecting Pepsi cans, and you're currently curating a collection that's going to go on exhibit, but perhaps this exhibit will cause great professional turmoil for you as people find out that you're spending all your time, nights and weekends collecting antique Pepsi cans, and who in the world would do that.
Hunter Powers: But I don't think that actually works because, the problem there is the activity that you're doing is not something that you care about a ton, the putting it on per presentation. Like, you have some hesitation about it, if you didn't have hesitation about it, it would be passion. Your hesitation causing the stress means that it's something that you don't really care about, but you kind of know that you're supposed to do or you want to do. This starts diverting into the idea of, that where we see fear, like the things that we're afraid of are the things that we should run towards, which is an idea that you will see out there, and you can immediately find faults in this idea, but look for the areas of fear in your life and then try to start confronting them.
Hunter Powers: But that's definitely something that's very stressful, but you might care deeply about confronting the fears because that's how you're going to move forward. Let's go back to this person, their antique Pepsi can collection, and they don't want to put on a big show because then, geez, everyone's going to know that they're collecting antique Pepsi cans. But they feel as though, "Look, I need to put on the show because if I ever, I'm going to turn this antique Pepsi can collection into a full time career, because that would truly be the greatest achievement of my passion. I've got to take this step, but the step is something I'm afraid of." But how does that balance with the first part of the statement, that working hard for something we don't care about is called stress?
Hunter Powers: And so, I'm suggesting that fear, confronting fears about something that you're passionate about, you often do care a lot about it, yet experience stress. So I'm going to call it an edge case, an edge case for the first thing, that I think like fear and borders on anxiety is an example where you are working hard, and you do care about it, and you do experience stress. But I think I agree with the general sentiment of the idea, that working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. And I think the interesting applications of this are twofold. One, look for where you have stress in your life, and ask yourself are you working hard for something that you don't care about? And then, of course, if you are, see if you can figure out a way to stop.
Hunter Powers: And then second, look for people around you that appear to be experiencing massive amounts of stress, and ask yourselves is that because they don't really care about what they're working so hard on, and what strategy adjustments might you make about who you're surrounding yourself with, or the team that you're working with, or the projects that you're working on, given that insight?
Hunter Powers: So I think that was interesting. Thanks. Thanks Simon. If you don't know Simon Sinek, his most famous book is Start With Why. It's a recommended read, where the basic idea is that in order to motivate someone, you shouldn't just tell them what you want them to do. You should start with why you're asking them to do the thing, and then you can get into now do this. All right, that's all for now. Once again, this is Hunter Powers coming to you from Washington, D.C. Or as we say from within the city, D.C. Proper, and this was Your One Idea. Until next time.