LIE NO. 11

SHUN STRESS

Many psychologists see stress as one of the biggest killers of motivation. The reason: Stress is unhealthy, it can make you ill and fat. All of this is true— at least when it comes to negative stress. However, there is also positive stress, known as eustress— and the effect that it exerts is actually highly motivating. Stress is always positive if we can resolve it on our own and take action ourselves. Why would that be? In reality, there is no growth without stress. For example, if you want to build up your muscles, you have to put them under some amount of strain— which means you must stress them. And our willpower is also a kind of muscle that can be strengthened through strain and stress. “The only important thing is that you see the sense behind your stress, otherwise you won’t be motivated,” explains mental coach and motivation trainer Steffen Kirchner.