Serenity Now!

Dealing with stress is part of the job of being a coach, there is no avoiding it. When you accepted the role of leading a team in the highly competitive world of collegiate athletics you also accepted the pressure and demanding lifestyle that comes with this profession. These factors are an inherent part of the job and as a result, you will experience psychological stress.

Psychological stress is how our bodies respond to EXCESSIVE emotional or mental tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

What I want to highlight in this blog is the distinction between psychological stress caused by current circumstances and stress caused by anticipated problems. To illustrate, picture this situation: Your starting quarterback is injured and your backup quarterback just entered the transfer portal leaving you with a true freshman to start next week’s game. This is a known and understood problem based on your current circumstances that will drastically increase your stress level. If, however, you feel as though your job could be on the line based on how your team performs this coming week then another type of stressor emerges known as ANXIETY. Anxiety is the feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease of things that haven’t happened and are outside of our control, unknown, poorly defined, or don’t exist in reality.

Being able to anticipate events that have yet to occur is a uniquely human cognitive phenomenon that is designed to protect us against potential dangers that might occur in the future. This is a good thing that has allowed our species to not only survive but to thrive. The downside to being able to anticipate future events is that we can expend enormous amounts of energy dealing with imaginary problems or issues that never actually occur.

I would contend that the key to a healthy, long-lasting career in collegiate sports is not to dismiss or ignore the stress that comes with this job but rather to embrace it. Focus your energy on problems you can actually solve and try to minimize the time and energy you spend on future anticipated problems that are outside of your control. Let’s face it, you are going to experience stress — it’s part of the job. Just choose to stress over problems that are real and within your control.

Let me leave you with Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer because I believe he sums it up best…

God, grant me the serenity to ACCEPT the things I cannot change, the COURAGE to change the things I can, and the WISDOM to know the difference.