If your personal or professional lifestyle is taking it’s toll on your wellbeing, you need to act now and make some changes to avoid the damage that, allowing yourself to become burnt out, will inevitably cause you and the people around you.
You may be experiencing burn out just now or have experienced it’s devastation in the past and want to avoid reaching that point again.
This test will help you to be more specific about your own individual stressors and understand how you personally become burnt out. The assessment results will be specific to your particular personality and circumstances.
The pressure we put ourselves under comes from two main sources. Internal stressors or external stressors. Have a look at the suggestions below and decide what you think affect you.
STAGE ONE
Give each of the following a grading from A to C. A are those that seem most relevant to you. You can have as many A’s, B’s or C’s that are right for you at this time. Write them beside each statement.
Internal stressors include:
- Being a perfectionist or having impossible expectations of yourself
- Not being able to say no and taking on too much
- Experiencing a trauma
- Running on adrenaline
- Feeling overly responsible
- Pleasing other people and putting their needs and wishes first
- Physical illness or injury, poor diet, tiredness etc
- Trying to change what someone else does
- Trying to influence how someone else thinks or feels
- Feeling out of control and overwhelmed emotionally
- Trying to fix or sort something that is beyond your control
- Being negative and critical towards yourself
External stressors include:
- Other people’s expectations, demands or behaviour
- Work pressures, change and insecurity
- Events outside of your control
- Caring for someone elderly, ill or disabled
- Insufficient support
- Poor housing and other material circumstances
- Financial demands
- Not enough time
- Being ignored
- Technology
- Weather
- Any situation you cannot control – the weather, government policy, access to public services, death etc
STAGE TWO
Consider all the A’s again and grade them from 1 – 3. 1 being the most relevant.
STAGE THREE
List all your A 1’s. These are the areas that you should start to work on for maximum impact.