Joan Ball is a business professor at St. John’s University in New York and the author of Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life.
Short answer? For me, yes. And apparently, so does bloggery. I’d like to apologize for being light on the ethical pondering the last couple days, folks. It’s been a heckuva week at work, and I’ve been so swamped I’m literally looking up from my inbox after midnight wondering where the heck (and who the heck) I am.
It hasn’t made me the nicest of people at my job, either.
Shocking confession: I don’t handle stress well all the time. (Everyone who knows me is well aware of this. “Hysterical” and “Hillary” are not so far apart etymologically.) You’d think I was 25, instead of 35, the way I tend to dither and fret when big projects come due. I’ve managed to hold it together for the most part, but my email responses have gone from, “Dear so and so, thank you for your kind response, I’ll get back to you on that later…” to “TY, ttyl” if that.
No big deal, I suppose. We can all be forgiven for being abrupt, right? But what about truly gruff? I ask because, ugh, I really snapped at someone today.
Granted, they kind of deserved it. But oh, how I wanted to be the bigger person and not rise to the bait. I wanted in the worst way to be mature, in control, and cool under pressure. HA! Dream on.
So, dear bloggies, what do you do when the pressure’s on? How do you maintain grace under fire?
Subscribe to receive updates from Everyday Ethics or follow us on Twitter!
posted October 14, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I check to make sure I took my anti-depressant today. For me, that makes a lot of difference in how I treat the world, especially when I am under stress. YMMV, of course.
posted October 14, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I am so busy with school, children, work and life that there are times I have to think back and question myself, did I even say thank you to that person who just helped me? And sometimes the answer is, “I dont know.” When I am in complete overload I have been known to snap at those close to me. Making a habit of offering sincere thanks and apologies softens the blow, but finding ways to reduce my own stress so that I dont snap to begin with is a better preventative measure, though not always easy to do.
posted October 28, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I find a quiet place and say to myself, “Serenity Now!”