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.
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.
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.