Resilience Quota

Midway through a family evening, my short attention span strikes again. I mount the stairs to my bedroom and reach for the pile of Sunday Times magazines I have been hoarding ready for a rainy day. No droplets fall outside my window, but this seems as good a time as any to plunge in. Midway through Style from a couple of weeks ago, I find an article about RQ, or Resilience Quota; one's ability to bounce back. By clicking onto www.testyourrq.com you can quickly identify your strengths and weaknesses and hence how to develop. Post-meltdown, this strikes me as a constructive and interesting venture, and so I try it out. The results are interesting.

They are split into five categories: Optimism, Solution Orientation, Individual Accountability, Openness and Flexibility & Managing Stress and Anxiety. Overall, my RQ is pretty high at 64%. However, my 0% score on 'Managing Stress and Anxiety' sticks out dramatically amongst the 75%, 85%, 85% and 75% respectively in the other four areas. Not only does this strike me as interesting, but remarkably accurate. I have often felt let down by my ability to tackle stressful situations calmly, and anxiety has riddled my thoughts for quite some time. My report's advice for dealing with this is:
1) Identify stressors (things which trigger stress)
2) Consider if you can avoid/eliminate stressors
3) If the second step isn't possible, either distract yourself from the stressor, or break it down and tackle it before reaching a resolution.

I like this, and I like it a lot. It appeals to my logical side; the side that caused me to score 85% on Individual Accountability. It makes my Anxiety and Stress two boxes that I can neatly pack away in my wardrobe, so long as I have identified the parts of my life that should be stored away in them. Is this why it's so therapeutic to tidy and organise a bedroom or an office? It must be my inner control freak. I'd recommend heading for your free RQ test right now. After all, what have you got to lose?
www.testyourrq.com