Go After It

I would like to start this short post by linking this TED Talk, on the possible benefits of stress. While the studies backing the first claims do seem to lack some robustness, statistically speaking, the lecture itself is extremely interesting. Personally I've always felt like stress makes me grumpier and less social rather than more empathetic as suggested. Still, we're often wrong when trying to perceive our own behaviour, and I guess it is undeniable that stressful moments do indeeed push ourselves into opening ourselves and sharing our feeling with others as a ways to easen our burden. Physically speaking everyone knows it can work both ways: it can make us capable of the most astonishing physically prowesses as well as cripple us in the most ridiculous ways.

For me the best part of the speech, apart from the good looking speaker, is her final advise: "chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort, (...) go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows." Stress comes and goes, and so do regrets, while meaningful things will linger within us much longer. Even if it were not better for your health, in the end it would still be definately better for your life. If you have found what it is that creates meaning in your life, go after it.


Filipe Baptista de Morais