Eustress: The Good Stress

Posted on 05 Jan, 2025

Opposite of distress, i.e., positive stress. Enough stress to keep you motivated and focused on the task at hand but not too much that it becomes overwhelming.

A nice take by u/nerdityabounds on Reddit:

Taking action requires us to experience just the right amount of stress. Too little or too much and the mechanism to initiate action does not fire. With too little there isn’t enough internal pressure to see the task as worth activating for and with too much stress there is too much internal pressure to organize our actions productively. In the middle there is just enough pressure to make the task feel relevant and worthwhile but not too much to reduce focus and mental organization.