In my vast experience of this phenomenon, stress and stupidity feed off of each other in a Murphy’s Law sort of way — my stress contributes to a blunder and the blunder results in more stress… 

A particularly annoying example of this occurred a few years ago. While under significant situational stress, I forgot to renew my driver’s license. When I corrected the oversight, and received my new license, I cut up the old one. And then I misplaced the new one. In my stress induced muddle, I figured I must have cut up the new one thinking it was the old one. Once again, I  headed down to the service office and paid to have the new one replaced… Only of course to discover I now had two new driver’s licenses. 

I can laugh now, but at the time, having to spend extra time taking care of those details compounded feeling stressed. 

There is no avoiding stress in life. My current favourite way to deal with stress? Stop saying stress and say challenge instead. As for the stupidity that accompanies stress, well, that too becomes a challenge to be more mindful of details like driver’s licenses. Sometimes it works. And sometimes it’s just a stupid mistake.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.  Your comments, questions, ideas and suggestions are always welcome.  You can comment here, or choose between Facebook, Twitter, or the contact button.  

Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger.  I keep it short and to the point.  Topics are as wide ranging as a straight but not narrow path.