Royal Bank Letter Published by Royal Bank of Canada

So it is with stress in the more modern sense of the word: little if anything could be accomplished without it. But as in engineering, the right balance of stresses must be struck to achieve the desired creative tension. Too little, and nothing holds together; too much, and everything flies apart. When people think of stress today, they are usually thinking of the effects of having more than enough of it. They talk about it in the same spirit, and in much the same language, as an engineer discussing stress tolerances. They will say that they are overloaded,pressed for time, being pushed to do too much. There is, however, a vital difference between stress among inanimate and animate things. Among the inammate, it is produced by external pressure. Among the animate, it can be generated internally, because living creatures can feel.