Yerkes-Dodson Law

I used to work in media relations and issues management, and the crisis-adrenaline energy is real.

There’s a thrill that comes with fast-paced, responsive, and agile environments; for me it was like looking at problems as if they were multifaceted gems, seeing all sides. And moving around pieces of an ever-shifting game of Tetris.

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But there’s been other challenges that have pushed me completely over the edge, into burnout and shut down.

Moving cities, from the mainland to Vancouver Island, was one of those times. November 2020, in the height of the pandemic, travel restrictions in full force, pouring rain. A moving van that filled up too fast, an agonizing chronic pain flare up, only four months after my dad died.

I wasn’t fully aware at the time, but my resilience was eradicated. My health was getting worse, and I didn’t have the capacity to figure out what I needed to change.

There’s a sweet spot in the correlation between stress and performance, and the Yerkes-Dodson Law is a helpful tool to assess where you're at. Arriving in Victoria on that cold dark night almost four years ago found me on the far right of the bell curve.

I’m now in the space of high excitement (aka stress), loving what I do, challenged by learning new things, being generative and creative.

And I'm paying close attention to where I might be getting fatigued. Luckily, I have close coaching friends who keep it SUPER real and remind me that there’s a downside to relentless performance.

Where are you on this continuum? What about your team? Or friends and family?

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