Reject Stability

This letter originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Men’s Health Australia.

IN THE LATE 1970S a researcher from the University of Chicago, Salvatore Maddi, was studying the psychological motivations of 26,000 employees working at a local phone company. Soon after the study began, there were major disruptions to the business as deregulation of the US phone industry caused mass changes to resourcing and operations.

Unsurprisingly, there were many employees who rejected the changes, experiencing feelings of victimisation and a yearning for the ‘good old days’. These employees struggled, resisting forces of change that were largely outside of their control. What was surprising to Maddi and his researchers was the flow-on effects of this resistance, most strikingly in the form of serious health conditions: heart attack, stroke, obesity, depression and substance abuse, as well as relationship breakdown, were common among the downtrodden.

Maddi’s study did, however, identify people within the company who saw an opportunity to reframe the industry, rework outdated procedures and improve methodologies. Individuals with this mindset were notably happier and healthier, thriving under the opportunity to embrace change. The study went on to provide a psychological blueprint for successfully coping with stress, with three key characteristics attributed to those employees who flourished amid upheaval: commitment to remaining involved in the process, an attempt to control what they could rather than lapsing into passivity, and an inclination to embrace the learning opportunities presented by change.

Fast forward 40 years and the Australian magazine industry has undergone a similar reckoning. After learning of Men’s Health’s closure last year via a company-wide Zoom call, I immediately and regrettably found myself among Maddi’s less forward-thinking test subjects. After hurling my phone at the adjacent wall, I spent 10 minutes marinating in my pain before regrouping and calling the Men’s Health team. It was a dark time for health, for magazines – and for me personally.

In the following six months, I swiftly learned one of the greatest lessons one can hope to absorb during times of change. As Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal argues in The Upside of Stress, your reaction to stress usually has a greater impact on your health and success than the stressor itself.

Which brings us to this issue, marking one full year since the relaunch of Men’s Health in Australia. It should come as no surprise that the men we now champion when it comes to health and fitness are those who were born in an era of hardship and adversity, yet have shown themselves adaptable in periods of change and instability. Yes, I’m talking about Gen Y.

Every reader of this magazine has been affected in some way by the monumental, often traumatising events of the past 20 years. But it’s Gen Y that has borne the brunt of them. This is a generation that has spent its formative years glued to screens broadcasting disaster, the very fabric of their world changing before their eyes: September 11 and the ensuing wars, the rise and toxification of social media, the GFC, increasing natural disasters and now, of course, COVID-19.

When considering this generation – two of which feature in this issue: Alex Russell (Click here) and Jacob Elordi (Click here) – I often liken them to Bane from Batman. We merely adopted the dark. They were born in it, moulded by it. They didn’t see the light until they were already men. By then it was nothing to them but blinding.

But although shaped by darkness, somehow the resulting cohort hasn’t mutated into an army of malevolent Gotham villains. Instead they’re distinguished, as a generation, by their remarkable resilience. Like some of the employees in Maddi’s study, they’ve shown themselves to be agile, strong and empathetic. Perhaps that makes them the leaders we need in ‘uncertain times’. After all, who better to safeguard our future health and happiness than those who are able to remain optimistic in a world where the only constant is change?