The Stress Paradox: How to Harness Stress to Improve Health and Performance

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast

Andy Stanley

Business

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many leaders see stress as an enemy—something to manage, minimize, or escape. But the truth is some stress is necessary for growth and can even improve your health. In this episode, Andy sits down with Dr. Sharon Bergquist—physician, researcher, and author of The Stress Paradox—to explore how strategic, short bursts of stress can build resilience and improve performance.

Download the application guide: https://bit.ly/4l1Q7OU

Here's what we cover in this episode:

The difference between bad stress and good stress (4:43)
The science behind good stress (6:49)
How to manufacture healthy stress in your daily life (13:20)
What leaders can do to model and multiply a healthy relationship with stress for their organizations (32:12)

Special thanks to our sponsor BELAY for offering a free download of their ebook, Delegate to Elevate. Belay is an organization that will help you free up your time and allow you to focus on the things that allow you to be most successful. And this resource will empower you to focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Just text the word ANDY to 55123 to claim your free ebook now.

Recognized as one of Forbes' 6 Leadership Podcasts To Listen To In 2024 and one of the Best Leadership Podcasts To Stay in the Know for CEOs, according to Industry Leader Magazine.

____________

Where to find Andy:

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, a conversation designed to help leaders go further faster.
0:08.0	And before we get into today's content, I want to tell you about a special offer from our friends at Belay.
0:14.5	Whether you're in a startup, a small business, or maybe even a large corporation, we all want to grow our organizations and get better as
0:22.3	leaders. But you need extra time to do what only you can do as a leader. And you don't need to be
0:28.1	doing everything that you're probably doing. And in some cases, things you're not even good at.
0:33.1	So this is where our friends at Belay can help. Belay will help you free up your time and allow you to focus on the things that allow you to be most successful.
0:41.6	Because whether you need an exceptional U.S.-based virtual assistant, accounting professional, or even a social media manager,
0:48.5	Belay has the right person to help.
0:51.2	To help you get started, Belay is offering their latest book, Delegate to Elevate, Delegate to Elevate for
0:56.9	free. In this e-book, you'll learn how to stop diluting your efforts by trusting your team with more
1:03.2	responsibility. This is going to empower you to courageously focus on your strengths and delegate
1:08.5	your weaknesses, which is something we talk about all the time on our podcast.
1:12.6	Doing this will help you develop future leaders as well. To claim this offer, just text the word
1:17.1	Andy to 551-2-3 for your free copy today. That's A-N-D-Y to 55-1-2-3. In no time, you will be back
1:26.1	to doing what only you can do, growing your
1:29.3	organization. And now, let's jump into today's content. Today, we're tackling a topic
1:35.6	that every leader is familiar with, stress. And I guess the truth is most of us see stress as an
1:42.1	enemy, something to minimize or escape.
1:44.9	But as it turns out, and this is what makes today's conversation so fascinating, as it turns out,
1:49.4	stress is not always an enemy.
1:51.4	It can actually be wind in our sales.
1:53.6	And joining me today is the individual who actually wrote a book to prove it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andy Stanley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Andy Stanley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.