Chris | Point Chevalier
“I think it’s Auckland traffic really that’s a big source of stress in people’s lives. I think it’s greatly under-estimated how much harm it probably does.
People just get used to it I think, and in reality their lives would be completely different if they weren’t – it creates a hostile environment, because the car is almost like a sort of dangerous wild animal. So it’s stressful if you’re a pedestrian and stressful if you’re driving in the middle of it.
What’s important to me in life is, well I think there’s a fellow called Pink, I forget his first name, but he’s written a book on what motivates people, and that is autonomy, mastery and purpose. That in other words, that you’re not just being battered about by external forces, that you actually have some control over things, and some purpose, too.
Oh just generally sort of academic background and so on, but people have the idea that people are motivated by money and so forth, and in reality this external motivation, well it’s, it’s very narrow, and people actually want some control over their lives. They want to feel that they’re doing something that is purposeful and worthwhile, and they also want some autonomy over, over their own time and so on, but definitely stress.
The stress is caused by not having mastery over a situation, if you have control over a situation, then you’re not stressed, and if you don’t have control then you are stressed, and of course that comes back to traffic, being caught up in the middle of traffic and not being able to go forwards or backwards, yeah that sort of thing.
Well, one of the ways (to mitigate stress) is to actually have some serious interests of my own. Which I pursue in terms of writing and so on. If I felt I was just doing things, you know, living somebody else’s life all the time, that would be a stressful experience, but again, it’s having something that you’re in charge of yourself that’s very important.”
**FEELING STRESSED?**
Check out these resources from the Mental Health Foundation: Stress and how to Handle it and the Five ways to Wellbeing. Need to talk to someone? Free text or call 1737 anytime.
