Seven Jobs That Are Worth the Stress

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Most jobs are stressful. When you're an hour away from the deadline for that spreadsheet of "value-adding actionable items" and your boss is breathing down your neck, your anxiety level is going to be pretty high.

Luckily, there are a lot of ways to relieve stress at work. One of the best is by putting your situation into perspective. For example, ask yourself: "Is the world going to end if it takes me an extra hour to finish this project?" Answering questions like this helps to give us a more realistic perception of our stress, once we realize our Excel spreadsheet won't be saving -- or costing -- any lives.

But you have to wonder about the people who have jobs that come with so much pressure that doing them well actually is matter of life or death (or at least company livelihood). What makes it possible to cope with that kind of stress on a daily basis? While some people may just be hard-wired to revel in life's pressure cookers, it probably doesn't hurt that a lot of high-stress jobs come with an equally high paycheck.