Speaking at the India Today HealthWealth Summit, Dr SK Sarin, who is India's top liver doctor, challenged the idea that stress is always harmful. He explained how the right kind of stress can help people focus, prepare and achieve their goals.Dr S K Sarin on stress: How positive pressure can improve focus and performanceNew Delhi,Oct 29, 2026 17:31 ISTStress is often blamed for affecting health and disrupting daily life.
But what if some stress could actually help people perform better? Dr S K Sarin, Director of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, offered a different perspective at the India Today HealthWealth Summit.Speaking during the session Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Sarin said, “Stress is extremely necessary for living.” He argued that instead of treating stress as an illness in every situation, people should understand how it can help them focus on achieving their goals.Watch the session here:WHEN STRESS BECOMES A MOTIVATORTo explain his point, Sarin referred to his book Why I Failed, which features 20 stories, including those of Narayana Murthy and Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.
He recalled Bindra's experience at the Olympics. The first time Bindra won gold, he was under considerable stress and could not sleep the night before the competition.
He worried that he might not be able to achieve his goal, but ultimately succeeded.The next time, Bindra prepared differently. He did not meet anyone and remained calm, yet he lost.
Drawing on this example, Sarin said stress could create the focus needed to achieve something important.“Stress gives you that kind of focus to win,” he said.His point was not that people should deliberately make themselves anxious, but that pressure can sometimes become part of the effort required to achieve a goal.NOT EVERY DAILY WORRY IS WORTH THE STRESSSarin also drew a distinction between stress linked to a meaningful goal and the pressure people experience over everyday tasks.“But yes, if you stress about daily tasks of the day, that's not life,” he said.He believes stress should be directed towards achieving something rather than being allowed to disturb a person's life. In his view, treating every stressful experience as an illness misses the possibility that pressure can sometimes be useful.“In my opinion, stress shouldn't be taken as an illness,” Sarin said. “I would say take stress as something which can make you achieve and not to disturb.”A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IS PART OF THE PICTURESarin also connected positive stress with maintaining a healthy lifestyle.“There is good stress.
And it will happen only when you keep your lifestyle healthy,” he said.His message at the summit was that stress should be understood in context. Pressure linked to a goal can help a person concentrate, while constant worry over routine tasks can become disruptive.For Sarin, the distinction lies in how stress affects a person's ability to move forward.
Rather than allowing it to take over everyday life, he urged people to focus on what they want to achieve and use that pressure constructively.Watch the HealthWealth Summit LIVE here: - Ends