Coaching Invites a Strategic Approach to Stress

Two weeks ago, I met with a student in her final semester who was about to take a significant exam in a course necessary for completing her major. She had found herself overwhelmed with stress from life situations outside of the course. Unable to focus on her preparation, she was terrified that she would fall apart during the exam. 

I shared a story with her, and a video, demonstrating a perspective about stress. A professor compares life's worries to a glass of water. You can handle thinking about them for a period of time, but the longer you hold them, the heavier they are, until you feel exhausted and paralyzed. Every problem cannot be solved in the moment. Sometimes, you have to put the glass down -- in other words, set the problem aside for a time until you have the time and energy to pick it up again. 

Most students are juggling a pile of issues. Coaching can help a student approach multiple stresses by prioritizing the most urgent task and tabling other stresses until they have their turn at the top of the priority list. I asked my student:

• How might she "put down the glass" of her life stress for a couple of days to pursue the top priority goal of doing well on the exam? 

• What could help her feel confident that the personal issue would wait until she was ready to address it? 

• Who could support her focus on the exam until it was complete? 



Coaches have the power to offer reflective time and safe space in which overwhelmed students can realize they have choices. And coaches, too, can set the glass down.  

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Saturday, April 23