What do you do if you're struggling to pinpoint the underlying sources of stress in your career?

1 Assess your situation

Objectively assessing your current situation is the first step to pinpointing the sources of stress in your career. You can use a tool like SWOT analysis to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your work environment. This can help you identify which aspects of your job are satisfying, challenging, rewarding, or stressful. Additionally, ask yourself questions such as what your main goals and priorities are, what expectations and demands are present in your role and organization, how you balance work and personal life, how you cope with stress and pressure, and what sources of support and feedback you have access to. Answering these questions can give you a better understanding of your situation and the factors that influence your stress level.

2 Identify your stressors

The next step is to identify the specific stressors that are affecting you in your career. Stressors are any events, situations, or conditions that trigger a stress response in your body and mind, such as workload and deadlines, role ambiguity or conflict, lack of autonomy or control, poor communication or relationships, change and uncertainty, career development or stagnation, and ethical or moral dilemmas. To identify your stressors, you can use a technique like the 5 Whys method. This involves asking yourself “why” repeatedly until you reach the root cause of a problem. For example, if you feel stressed about a project, you can ask yourself why you have too much work to do and not enough time. This may lead to uncovering deeper reasons for your stress such as low self-esteem and needing external validation due to a history of being criticized and rejected.

3 Evaluate your reactions

The third step is to evaluate how you react to the stressors in your career. Your reactions are the ways that you think, feel, and behave in response to stress. They can either be adaptive, which help you cope with stress, or maladaptive, which worsen it. Adaptive reactions include seeking help and support from others, setting realistic goals, managing time and priorities effectively, practicing relaxation and self-care techniques, and developing a positive mindset. Maladaptive reactions are avoiding or denying the problem, blaming yourself or others, procrastinating or overworking, using substances or unhealthy habits to cope, and developing a negative mindset. To evaluate your reactions, you can use the ABC model (Activating event, Belief, and Consequence). This model helps you analyze how your thoughts affect your emotions and actions in stressful situations. For example, if you receive negative feedback from your boss, you can use the ABC model to examine your reaction: Activating event (your boss gives you negative feedback on your performance), Belief (you think that you are incompetent and worthless), and Consequence (you feel angry, depressed, and anxious). By using this model, you can identify the irrational and unhelpful beliefs that trigger your negative reactions and replace them with more realistic and constructive ones.

4 Implement solutions

The final step is to implement solutions to manage the sources of stress in your career. Solutions are the actions you take to reduce, eliminate, or cope with the stressors you face, which can be problem-focused or emotion-focused. Problem-focused solutions may include negotiating workloads and deadlines, clarifying roles and responsibilities, increasing autonomy and control, improving communication and relationships, adapting to or initiating change, seeking career development or advancement opportunities, and resolving ethical or moral dilemmas. Emotion-focused solutions may include seeking help and support from others, setting realistic goals, managing your time and priorities effectively, practicing relaxation and self-care techniques, and developing a positive and resilient mindset. To implement solutions effectively, you can use the SMART acronym – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – to plan and execute them. For example, if you want to improve your communication with your boss you could use the SMART acronym to set a goal of scheduling a meeting within two weeks to discuss performance and expectations while preparing a list of questions and feedback to share. This approach allows you to create realistic and manageable solutions.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?