How a million little things are dragging you down and what to do about it. There's a force we
encounter every day that we aren't aware of-and it threatens to derail otherwise promising
careers and lives: microstress. This hidden epidemic of small moments of stress has insidiously
infiltrated both our work and our personal lives with invisible but devastating effects.
Microstress doesn't trigger the normal stress response in our brains to help us deal with it.
Instead it embeds itself in our minds and accumulates daily one microstress on top of the
other. The long-term impact can be debilitating. Unregistered microstress weighs us down
damages our physical and emotional health and contributes to a decline in our well-being.
What's more microstress is baked into our lives. The source is seldom a classic antagonist
such as a demanding client or a jerk boss. Instead it comes from the people with whom we are
closest: our friends family and colleagues. The good news is that once you understand
microstress you can fight back. Drawing on fresh research Rob Cross and Karen Dillon explain
the science behind the phenomenon. They also share the secrets of a small set of people who've
endured their share of microstress but have still managed to cultivate relationships that
enable them to thrive both at work and in life. Compelling interviews with these high achievers
bring to life best practices that show you how to build resilience against microstress and
ultimately how to find purpose-purpose that helps you break free from this quietly invasive
force that's stealing your life.
