Adulting and Stress: Man Up and Build Capacity!

The last two weeks were the most challenging in my entire career put together. I have never experienced so much stress in my adult life. Work was tough! I remember spending about two hours in the restroom crying my eyes out and wanting it all to disappear. Now I know that when it comes to adulting and stress, I need to man up and build capacity.

To be frank, my default response was to quit and run. According to my reasoning, work was stressful and “not good for my mental health”. It was my justification to quit because I did not feel up to it at the time. Eventually, I had to man up.

Like me, there are most likely a lot of you whose default response to adulting and stress is to get up, pull off your shoes and run. See, I get it. Life is already hard enough. Nobody needs the extra struggle. But you see, one thing I will tell you for free is that adulting requires you to understand that life will not always go according to your expectations.

There are days when you will be on top of your game, five steps ahead, smashing goals and beating deadlines as the imaginary crowd in your head blow their trumpets and celebrate your victory. There are also days life will be miles ahead of you. I have come to understand that all these is a part of adulting. Just acknowledge it and man up!

So how do you man up? First, you need to understand that it is an essential part of adulting. It includes building capacity for life’s challenges and putting structures in place for dealing with stress. There are times life will throw your way challenges. You’ve got to man up. Running from them is not the right option. In all honesty, adulting has taught me that there are some situations one cannot run from.

By all means, choose your battles. Spot areas/situations that do not require your rising up to the occasion. Be honest about areas you need to build capacity, battles that are not worth stressing over and challenges to be handled.

Dear adult, it is time to stop making excuses. Know that the ability to man up is directly impactful on how you respond to tougher situations in your adult life.

That said, cheers to the tough road! May it get easier as you grow.

Please how does one respond to adulting, workplace and the likes? You can comment below. Thank you!

There’s also: Feeling Stuck At Your Job? Read This. 

Written by Olufolake Onasanya