For me, proper perspective has been the best help there. You seem qualified enough to be able to find other work if the worst happens, and the worst is unlikely to happen.

This doesn’t mean be lazy. It means relax, and you’ll probably find that you do better work that way.

Unless someone’s life is directly on the line (maybe it is and I’m wrong), the stakes being high is often just a story we’re telling ourselves.

Never worked for a failing startup, huh? Okay sure, you might be able to find a job after it, but when you are trying to keep it going and every decision you make could make or break the company, it's hard not to feel the stress, especially if you really enjoy what you're doing.

Also being one of four people that helped a parent company lose a couple million dollars doesn't feel great either.

Or work for a large company where if you screw up it could result in all of your major clients terminating their contracts and the parent corporation deciding to close an entire department resulting in hundreds of people losing their jobs. That's the situation I'm in right now. Thankfully I'm not TOO high on that totem pole that I feel all the stress in the world, and we're probably only delaying the inevitable in the long run, but it is very difficult to relax.

These all sound like situations that aren’t worth the fuss.

If the person can identify the fuss, then they can ask for compensation and see if they think it’s worth the fuss. In business everything is always at the stress level of results or nothing, but one doesn’t have to be close to the business if you don’t like the stress.

You make it sound as though stress is inherent, versus a product of unsavoriness.

Never worked for the military, huh? Okay sure, you might get fired for a wrong or dumb decision, but you can still live and be fine.

In the military where if you screw up it could result in all of your buddies dying. That was my situation when I was 18.

Listen, it's going to be alright. Breathe. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It's going to be okay.

Are you the owner/founder? If not, why are you even stressing about the startup's demise?

> But for me it was also a type of work where I put in some heavy work and got physically tired and slept well at night without a thought of the job.

I have a friend who went the other way: worked as a nuclear engineer but eventually got fed up and became a chef (he runs a restaurant in Palo Alto). As he put it to me “when I go home work is over. I don’t have many tasks that span days.”

The worst is when you make a decision that will take weeks or longer to play out.

I have been busy when I worked in a factory and had estops going off, but when the shift is over, Not my problem... Although don't make a mess.

>>>make a decision that will take weeks or longer to play out

This is a hardware engineers on going struggle.

If you're not already, you should try getting enough exorcise to exhaust you during your off time.

From what I've seen of exorcisms on TV, they certainty do look exhausting.

BSD user?