I had a bit of a jolt last month when I had to visit the doctor after a week long dull headache. Thankfully the doctors didn't find anything serious but the fact that they thought that it was a stress headache and prescribed some stress-medication has caused much anguish and perhaps even more stress ever since. Who me? And that too now? I feel so sane, so content and so insanely happy, surely the internal stress meter had it got all wrong or perhaps not.
Just today, the theme of discussion in the class was fatigue in metals and how people over the years have tried to characterise it by identifying the key parameters and coming up with expressions which describe the experiments reasonably well. The key parameters were words we use in day-to-day life, like stress, strain, fatigue, endurance limit, life etc. etc. As it was about time to wrap up the class I thought it was about time I did a dimensional analysis of life and arrive at the formula for stress in life that would be simple enough and yet captures the essential features of the phenomenon. So right after the class, on a sheet of paper some serious rocket science was done to identify the key parameters that affect the stress level, and I came up with these:
The more picky you are (high f), the more people you feel responsible for (high n), the more you want to control (high p) all lead to higher stress. And after all that if no one appreciates your efforts, no matter what you do the stress tends to infinity! Ouch!
So does my formula work for you? What are your controlling parameters? Tell me and become part of m!
Just today, the theme of discussion in the class was fatigue in metals and how people over the years have tried to characterise it by identifying the key parameters and coming up with expressions which describe the experiments reasonably well. The key parameters were words we use in day-to-day life, like stress, strain, fatigue, endurance limit, life etc. etc. As it was about time to wrap up the class I thought it was about time I did a dimensional analysis of life and arrive at the formula for stress in life that would be simple enough and yet captures the essential features of the phenomenon. So right after the class, on a sheet of paper some serious rocket science was done to identify the key parameters that affect the stress level, and I came up with these:
- f: the fraction of ideal that meets one's approval. So if there is an ideal ice-cream. If one is happy with something that is just 10% of the ideal, f=0.1. If it takes only the ideal to satisfy, f=1.0. I feel as a kid one's f is usually low, and rapidly increases with age.
- n: number of people one feel responsible for. It includes every one for whom one feels one can do something to improve their situation, be it immediate family, team members at workplace, or the person living in some part of the world who is dying of starvation while you are throwing away some food to empty the fridge.
- m: the number of people who appreciate your efforts in general.
- p: the level of details that your plans have in a scale of 0 to 10. The more you want to control the more you feel stressed.
The more picky you are (high f), the more people you feel responsible for (high n), the more you want to control (high p) all lead to higher stress. And after all that if no one appreciates your efforts, no matter what you do the stress tends to infinity! Ouch!
So does my formula work for you? What are your controlling parameters? Tell me and become part of m!
3 comments:
Bannu,
I really like the formula! I would add "H" to the whole thing which is general state of physical health and modify 'n'. Sometimes you may feel responsible only for one person, but that may almost drown you. so may be a "degree of n" is more appropriate!
-Vani
Hey Vani,
Good point about H. I often take good H for granted! So where should it appear you think?
Wanted to add too major stress reducing parameters also, sports and retail therapy but then thought it can be included in m as one appreciating oneself.
How about adding BHI (Bad health Index) to the right hand side? worse the health, higher the BHI. for an average person, when all other parameters take moderate values, this BHI can really rack up the stress.
Of course if m=0, no good health can save one from high stress due to utter loneliness!
-Vani
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