From the Conference: More on Building "Stress-Hardiness"
By Nancy Stek, Assistant Director
New Jersey Lawyers Assistance Program
Stress. It's written about, studied, and discussed widely both for its positive and negative effects. "Solutions" are plentiful and varied. The negative effects on health and performance––from heart disease to cancer, hypertension to concentration problems––are well documented. Solutions typically come in the form of helpful advice: eat better, exercise more, relax more, and learn how to say "no." Although helpful in some situations and important to an overall strategy, these suggestions do nothing to build or enhance the skills that lead to developing a naturally resilient response in any stressful situation. Breathing from the diaphragm does have a positive physiological effect on stress as an on-the-spot strategy, but in the long run it's doing the up- front work to build stress-hardiness that is the most effective approach to becoming naturally resilient. Building stress-hardiness is the key to developing resistance to the harmful effects of stress for members of the legal profession.
Moving beyond the more traditional approaches to coping with stress, the recent emphasis on "Positive Psychology" has focused on the approach of preventing harmful effects of stress by increasing personal resilience. People who possess certain skills and attitudes are less likely to experience stress and are more likely to respond effectively to problems and challenges than those who lack them. Hundreds of studies demonstrate a direct connection between resilience and performance in the midst of stress. The practice of law is often about "performance under stress": the performance of the attorney in the midst of chaotic schedules, conflicting demands, demanding colleagues, unhappy family members, and personal expectations.
The term "stress-hardy" was coined over twenty-five years ago by two researchers, Salvatore Maddi and Deborah Kobasa, as a result of a twelve-year study with employees at Illinois Bell Telephone during the upheaval of "Ma Bell's" divestiture. Since that time, their work and findings have been replicated in over four hundred additional studies. They found that people who have a sense of personal commitment to what they are doing, who feel in control of their lives, and who believe life to be challenging, tend to be resistant to many kinds of illness. On the other hand, those who focus on fear, chronic worry, anger, impatience, infelicity, and perfectionism all share the inability to relax. This causes strain on the mind and body and leaves the individual susceptible to stress-related problems. Three key attitudes or characteristi C’s helped resilient individuals turn adversity into advantage to successfully manage stress and strain. Hundreds of research studies since have consistently confirmed these findings. The characteristics are referred to as the "3 C’s" and are at the core of the hardiness approach to developing personal resilience: a mental "flexible toughness" to take your professional skills to yet another level.
Challenge, Commitment, Control
The three essential attitudes needed to combat one's vulnerability to stress are those of Challenge, Commitment, and Control. These are each defined as a strong belief or conviction: a conviction to being actively involved, having a "go for it" attitude, and welcoming the learning that results from life experience. To better understand how this applies to lawyers, let's examine the 3 C’s more closely. Challenge The first characteristic of people who maintain health in the face of high levels of stress has to do with the "Challenging" way they approach life. "Challenge" is based on the belief that change is a constant, positive, and normal characteristic of life. Successful people tend to see change as a challenge to confront and master rather than as a stress to avoid. They tend to welcome new situations as opportunities to learn and develop rather than looking at new prospects as threats and believe they can grow both from positive and negative life experiences. This optimistic, challenging attitude builds motivation and the ability to engage in peak performance, leadership, and health enhancing thoughts and behaviors. It encompasses risk-taking, adapting easily to change, and looking at life and its adversity with a "give it your best shot" attitude. The glass is always "half-full." Commitment "Commitment" is the second characteristic that defines hardiness. When commitment is present, individuals have a sense of purpose and meaning for what they are doing. They are fully involved and never lose sight of their purpose. This sense of commitment allows them to engage fully in work tasks despite stressful changes that may be taking place. They give activities their best effort and have a curiosity and are fully engaged in what they are doing. An energy and passion are triggered that give meaning to life and lessen the impact of stress. By realizing the important role they play, the positive impact they can have on others, and that there is meaning to what they do, they actually become less stressed, more energized, and more motivated. Control The last characteristic is that of "Control." Control motivates hardy individuals to thrive on change by finding ways to influence the outcome of stressful circumstances. Those who are successful focus their energy and efforts on events or aspects of events they have control over rather than on situations beyond their control. People become more stressed when they attempt to alter uncontrollable circumstances. Individuals who have the characteristic of hardiness see themselves as "in charge" and "responsible" for the outcomes of their lives. They tend not to be "blamers" and "whiners" and feel in control of their destiny and direction in life. They also have a realistic perspective on changing the things they can and accepting the things they can't. When individuals delineate a clear plan of reasonable action for situations that they can alter, their stress lessens. Even when their actions do not lead to success, they feel a sense of accomplishment in knowing that they took action. Additionally, they are likely to adopt the view that they can learn from what went wrong.
Building Resilience
Resilience is the capacity for rising above significant adversity or trauma and forming lasting strengths as a result of the struggle. It is the ability to cope with stress and catastrophe and build resistance to future negative events. People differ in their natural abilities to handle stress but being resilient boils down to having a certain set of skills. Skills can be learned, resilience can be developed. Whether referred to a "hardiness traits" or "resiliency skills" one thing is clear— when someone is high in hardiness traits and resiliency skills, they respond to life's stresses and changes with greater success.
The ability to handle and bounce back from stress depends on many factors, including: sense of control, ability to adapt to change, ability to handle unpleasant emotions, sense of humor, optimistic attitude, and self-confidence. One of the key skills in developing resilience is learning how to "reframe" a situation.
Reframing is an important skill that is at the heart of resilience. It is a way of shifting the focus to the cup being half full. Going back to an incident, finding and building strengths from the achievement, builds resilience. Instead of seeing oneself as "a helpless survivor" one can reframe an experience to see oneself as an "accomplished strategist." Sometimes it's easier to be the victim; it removes the obligation to change. But it is also possible to emerge from difficult situations with dignity and strength and become stronger and more resilient as a result. This is a critical step in developing resilience: shifting to a "challenge" perspective.
Using the 3 C’s in the Work Day
The key to the "Hardiness" approach centers on the core attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge. Adopting those attitudes, having that stance/perspective to deal with life, enables the ability to see situations in ways that create positive engagement and participation in influencing outcomes. Problems then transform into opportunities for learning and growth and as challenges to creativity and resourcefulness.
Work days, for example, are often "routine," yet some days seem more stressful or boring or chaotic than others. It is usually one's frame of mind that is different and creates the feeling of distress or discomfort. The work is the work. It is the attitude at the moment that colors the experience of it. A client can be seen as "difficult" or seen as fearful and lacking information or understanding. An interaction with them at the moment reflects an attitude and "stance." So, remembering the 3 C’s helps reframe a moment or interaction in a way that can change the experience of it from stressful to challenging and constructive. Seek to see the challenge in a situation, and then apply creative problem solving. Situational Reconstruction This is one strategy in deconstructing a stressful situation—looking at the best and the worst possible scenarios and outcomes, evaluating the likelihood of each scenario playing out, and then identifying what would need to happen to contribute to each outcome. Asking, "What would I need to do in order to contribute to the worst possible outcome?" and "how likely am I to do those things?" often provides insights that begin to change our experience. It is often discovered that the actions leading to the negative outcome are not ones likely to be taken. This reinforces the hardy attitude of control: not being a victim. Using the same process to explore the best possible outcome leads to a similar discovery: that different actions leading to the best possible outcome are also controllable. There are two paths to two different outcomes and the hardy individual chooses to take the actions leading to the best outcome. If this process does not clarify a path to positive action in addressing the stressor, a second strategy, “Focusing,” is utilized.
Focusing
Focusing can help uncover the emotions attached to the stress. Often there is an underlying problem or related feeling that is the central issue to the stressor that was originally identified. Through a process of relaxation and self-reflection, the underlying issue is uncovered. Once identified, the process of Situational Reconstruction is then applied to it. The "difficult client" may in fact be difficult, but the underlying issue is really the stressor. The client's personality may be similar to that of a former colleague with whom you have a long-standing, unresolved issue. This is the stressor that is triggered by the client. The process of Focusing brings to the surface a past but ongoing stressor that is triggered by a current situation. Using Situational Reconstruction on the underlying problem is what is needed to find a solution the stress.
If Focusing does not identify a solution to pursue, the situation may be a "given." It realistically cannot be influenced or changed. In that case, identifying a related stressor and applying Situational Reconstruction can help. Working on a related problem/stress can bring a sense of control and some degree of relief from the given stressor. That difficult client will keep coming back until their legal issue is resolved in court. That's the given. You may discover that meetings with this client are always on Thursday, which is typically the most heavily scheduled day of your week. Addressing a stressor related to the given, in this case, changing the appointment to a typically less stressful day, may help reduce some of the stress related to the "difficult client."
In conclusion, understanding situations is important in knowing how to change them, but understanding without action maintains feelings of helplessness. Setting a goal and identifying positive steps is what takes the focus off of the problem and puts it on to the solution. Having strong personal and work-based support networks is also important. Here is a list of suggestions you can start implementing today. In addition to adopting the "3 C’s" and utilizing Situational Reconstruction on Focusing, these suggestions will help lessen workday stress and build your resilience.
- Making written lists instead of mental ones can help in managing things more easily. Mental lists never end. Things written down can be crossed off the list–– a visual reminder of progress. A written list also helps in prioritizing and triaging.
- Don't take on any non-necessary tasks/obligations "for now." There will always be opportunity to add more stress later.
- Enlist the help of others when possible. What seems impossible to do alone is often more easily handled with the help of others.
- Spend quality time with people who are supportive and positive.
- Take time for self-care. And don't forget to breathe.
Nancy Stek is the assistant director of the New Jersey Lawyers Assistance Program and a member of the Highlights editorial board. This article first appeared in the Winter 2010 Issue of Highlights.