General patterns of living or behavior play a major role in determining whether or not you develop stress, anxiety or burnout. Research studies consistently show that those who live a life of specific stress-filled patterns of behavior experience a greater risk of serious physical and emotional consequences.

One of the keys to reducing your susceptibility to burnout and poor health is to examine your current behavior patterns and lifestyle.

The following lifestyle patterns will help you gain an awareness of your own personal susceptibility to stress.

1) Sense of Time Urgency

Impatience

• Is it hard for you to wait in line?
• Do you find yourself hurrying the speech of others?
• Do slow drivers in the fast lane make you boil?
• Do you move, walk and eat rapidly?

Scheduling More and More in Less and Less Time

• Do you unrealistically try to schedule too many tasks without regard to the time available to you?
• Are you experiencing overload due to poor time management?

Feeling Guilty While Relaxing

• Do you feel like you always have to be doing something and can’t ‘do nothing’ for a few hours?
• Is your self-talk full of the ‘shoulds’?
• Is it difficult to do something that isn’t work related and is just for fun?

2) Extreme Competitiveness

Feeling Compelled to Always Challenge Others

• Does it seem that you always find yourself competing even when the situation doesn’t require it?

Tendency to Dominate Conversation

• Is it difficult to refrain from cutting in?
• Do you pretend to listen while thinking of something else?

3) Quest for Numbers

Preoccupied with having, not being

• Do you tend to neglect enjoying yourself and growing in new interests for the sake of accumulating achievements or things?

4) Insecurity of Status / Low Self-Esteem

Outward Confidence and Self-Assurance While Insecure Inside

• Do you feel like you are constantly struggling for recognition and acceptance?

Wearing an Emotional ‘Mask’ to Hide Your Real Self from Others

• Are you afraid of taking risks, of being vulnerable with others?
• Is it difficult to share feelings such as sadness, anger or fear with others?

5) Ineffective Time Management

Failure to Create Daily Focus through:

• Intentional Planning & Scheduling through daily and weekly routines taken from a written set of goals based on your priorities.

I wonder which of the above 5 behavior patterns you can begin to become intentional about changing? The good news is that taking charge of behaviors that lead to stress is under your control!