Levels of Stress
As an instructor at a military university and former military member (28 years), I've found that categorizing stress can help one cope. Regardless of the "institutional stressors" (suspenses, workplace conflicts, lack of technological advantages, etc...), remembering that no one is shooting at you and you'll be going home at the end of the day to your family helps bring things into perspective.
I believe stress and guilt are closely related. The stress/guilt associated with family and friends has a different impact that the stress/guilt associated with not being prepared for class. However, when I remember the lifestyles of my grandmother and my mother, and compare their lifestyles to mine, it is a completely different world that I live in. They had very limited opportunites in life and I have too many opportunites and I don't know if I should lower my expectations or just keep tryng to accomplish as much as I can.
Yes, we live in a very different context than our parents William. Life has become complete due to the tremendous amount of opportunity available to us. I'd say the best method is probably just trying to accomplish as much as you can - keeping expectations realistic.
Interesting perspective..., but I would not compare our jobs with battle fields (even though there are situations, which resemble ones...:)).
I would rather recommend to built positive outlook and work on building one's professional reputation. I can assure anyone that as our professional reputation among colleagues, students, administration goes up, our stress level quickly goes in right opposite direction (i.e. it goes down).
