Your Failure To Differentiate Stress From Pressure Could Be Your Downfall

We often hear phrases like, “I work in a high pressure environment,” and “I have a really stressful job” used interchangeably as if stress and pressure are exactly the same. But according to Hendrie Weisinger, Ph.D., a world renowned psychologist and senior author of “Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most,” (Crown, 2015) there’s a critical difference between stress and pressure. After reading the book, I had an opportunity to speak with Weisinger about this concept.

Your Failure To Differentiate Stress From Pressure Could Be Your Downfall

The Critical Difference Between Stress and Pressure

While we all face both stress and pressure in our personal and professional lives, Weisinger makes a clear distinction between the two.

Stress refers to the situation of too many demands and not enough resources – time, money, energy – to meet them.
Pressure is a situation in which you perceive that something at stake is dependent on the outcome of your performance.
Stress may involve a variety of problems that lead to feelings of overload. A meeting that runs late, a long list of emails that need responses, and several looming deadlines that need to be addressed may cause a fair amount of stress. But that doesn’t mean you’re under pressure.

Pressure involves feelings–often of an anxious and fearful nature–of a “do or die” type situation. When you’ve only got one shot to get it right–like being at bat in the ninth inning of the World Series with the tying run in scoring position, or a presentation to a client or job interview–you’ll experience pressure.


To help you hone this distinction, Weisinger recommends that any time you feel the “heat,” ask yourself, “Am I feeling overwhelmed by the demands upon me, or do I feel I have to produce a specific result?”  If your answer is the former, a feeling of being overwhelmed, too many demands and not enough resources, you are stressed.  If you are in a situation or entering one in which you feel you have to deliver the goods, that’s pressure.

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