Personality type and stress, we’re all different and here at Planet Positive Change we say that’s a good thing, it’s what makes life interesting. It’s also what can make life complicated at work and at home when we’re stressed. Examining your personality and type and stress offers an opportunity to take a look at what might jam your inner gears. What results in stress for you may not be the same for others, we all have different triggers and respond in incredibly different ways to stress. So how do you work it all out? A good place to start is with yourself. Take our free personality test here https://planetpositivechange.com/discover-your-personality-type/ and read on.
Personality Type & Stress Triggers
There are some pretty common stressors in life that most of us find tricky. Imagine the last time you moved house or stood up in public to give a presentation, palms sweaty and heart racing. For most of us, conjuring up the image alone creates a bit of a wobble. Anything from work, relationships, bereavement, making big decisions, meeting new people to thinking about finances (or lack of) can invoke a stress response. The tipping point for stress is different for all of us. It’s that moment when we just don’t feel that we have the capacity to meet the demands being placed upon us. Knowing about personality types can help us to navigate stress more effectively for ourselves and others. So what typically stresses each type?
Personality Type & Stress: What Makes Each Personality Type Start to Sweat The Small Stuff?
Each personality type has different triggers. Knowing what they are is the first step. Here’s our quick
Personality type and Stress Guide.
Extroverts (E): Stressed by spending to much time on their own, little or no social stimulation. They like people and need them around. e.g. working from home
Introverts (I): Stressed by spending too much time in the company of other people, too much external stimulation. They need time alone to reflect and recharge. And noise? don’t even get them started e.g. noise when trying to focus
Sensors (S): Stressed by ambiguity or lack or direction, no evidence base, supporting data or real purpose to an idea. Life needs to make sense otherwise everything could be a wild goose chase for the S e.g. Being asked to change something with no supporting evidence that the change is going to be better
Intuitives (N): Stressed by being forced to follow rigid rules or being asked to follow something to the letter e.g. being forced to stick to a timetable or being micromanaged.
Thinkers (T): Stressed by lack of rationale or decisions with no logic. Being pushed into thinking about people rather than the task. That job needs to be done, dammit. e.g. spending too much time on small talk before getting down to the real issue.
Feelers (F): Stressed by feeling that their values have not been respected. Lack of harmony will also get them hot under the collar. They are peace and love personified and want everyone to be happy e.g. if there is disharmony at home or work, the F will worry all day.
Judgers (J): Stressed by disorganisation and thrown into panic by last minute pressures (usually from someone else, they would never leave anything until the final hour!) e.g. meeting for dinner and your friend is late. To the J it’s just rude.
Perceivers (P): Stressed by inflexible people who need to know detail (why on earth would anyone want THAT much information?). Also rattled when they have to make a decision before they are good and ready e.g. when they want to go with the flow without a plan and someone is trying to pin them down to dates, times and other factors irrelevant to P.
Wellbeing Architecture
Once you’ve identified your triggers (along with the triggers of those of friends, partners and colleagues) you can begin to design your day to optimise your wellbeing. So, if you’re an E you’ll want to make sure that you build in time around others or if you absolutely must be alone for a period of time, you know that afterwards you can plan for some socialising to regain your equilibrium. The reverse is true for Is. If you know you’ll be spending your day around noise or large groups, you might decide to have an evening recharging on your own. Whatever your type, the trick to designing your day for optimum wellbeing is to consider your triggers whether at home or at work and begin to sculpt your environment to ensure minimum stressors. And when those stressors absolutely cannot be done away with? Mitigate against them by scheduling in time where you are stress free afterwards to recharge your batteries.
Type at Work
If you work in a team and you want to create a more harmonious environment talk about ‘Type’ and how each of you react. Start a conversation about how you can change the way you work together or the layout of your office, for example. Consider creating a silent space for high focus tasks or building time into the day where there are no interruptions. Knowing type will help you to collaborate, cooperate and build your team.
We have a huge range of free personalty tests, blogs, podcasts, You Tube videos and mindset toolkits so take a look at them and find out more about personality and reducing your stress.
