Month: May 2026

Taking the Life Stress Questionnaire I scored a 215 which would put me in the one third of all people will experience an illness or accident and higher than normal. Through the How Stressed Are You survey I scored a 74/100 which equated to a very stressed characteristic and above average. Lastly, the Type A survey showed that I am Type A and received a score of 85/100 which is nearing the edge of Very Type A.

Based on these results, I’m not very surprised. I feel as though I know I live a very high stress, intense, and ambitious lifestyle. I have two kids, work full-time, finishing my bachelors degree because I want to, not because I need to, while still pursuing business in my real estate profession on the side. Balancing my daily life takes a lot of problem solving, facing new challenges, and leaving little room for procrastination. I find myself always looking for the next thing I can be working towards, and can tend to be impatient or wishing I was further along.

One of the largest things I noticed in these results is something that I’m aware of already but serves as a good reminder is that I need to find ways to be less “high strung”. Through these questions I was reminded that I am typically not calm. I am typically stressed, high strung, easily irritable or annoyed, and can lose my patience because I’m always working through multiple problems in my head or feel I have a large amount of responsibility to uphold. Through this survey I’ve found that taking time to myself, working out, taking deep breaths, positive self talk and walking are all easy things I can do to try and better my situation of being stressed out.

In my career my type A tendencies serve me well as I can be valued as a problem solver and someone who doesn’t procrastinate. However, my tendency to become impatient and feel as though I can do something better than others can get in the way of my working relationships. Moving forward I found that I can “sign a contract with myself” in order to address the things that I want to work on and ensure I am taking the steps to do so.

Many organizations are offering trainings to employees on ways to navigate stress and anxiety. Through my own organization I’ve taken several classes that discuss the consequences of not dealing with stress in a healthy way, and ways that you can mitigate stress when it comes around. These have been very essential for the health of the organization, and provide a great benefit to employees.

My career path is a very unique one. One that most people would likely question due to the fact that I essentially worked my way backwards at one point to start a new path. At 20 years old I started in Real Estate, and was very successful at it. I was one of the fortunate few that was able to create a very comfortable living for myself and family off of being self employed. I thought I had everything I wanted, but after about 5 years I grew tired of the self-employed lifestyle and felt unsatisfied within my career. I knew I had to make a change because what I was doing just wasn’t fulfilling to me. I was no longer passionate about what I once was, and I think it was largely due to the fact that I was more so running a business based on commission and not helping others in a more meaningful way.

This is when I decided to work for my Tribal government, so I could assist the community I once grew up in, and shape the path for my kids generation. The reason I give this back story is because compensation was a large factor in these decisions. The motivating factor here was the passion I had to lead others in my community, and work towards a career path that would allow me the opportunity to set process in place that my kids and future generations would benefit from. I was choosing to leave a six figure a year income, and start over. I applied for a position posted as a limited duration part-time employee with the “opportunity” to develop into a full-time role. With no guarantee this was scary. My behavior towards this scenario was increased motivation, work ethic, and overall satisfaction towards my work environment. Once I received the job offer I knew I had to work extremely hard to work my way up the corporate ladder. I left a six figure per year career for $16 an hour part-time. This hurt, and motivated me to exemplify my attributes and find any opportunity I could to prove my value. Due to my contribution, I received the full-time position, and from there I’ve been promoted again to a Senior Executive Assistant. I’m very proud of the progress and growth I’ve made, and did not expect to be here in such a short amount of time. It goes to show with hard work, determination, and consistent action, you can make anything possible.

I have been apart of multiple training initiatives within my career. This is partly due to my eagerness to learn and become a better leader within my field. I enjoy the trainings that are established in order to better serve me within my career. With that said, the most effective trainings I have been apart of have been ones that align with the assessment and direction phase of development where human resource representatives offer training for succession planning an individual one on one sessions in order to give you a clear path to your career.

The reason these trainings are so effective in my opinion is because it draws a clear outline for what to expect, and is productive through and through. There is a clear objective of what we’re going to discuss, and is typically conveyed through a well thought out and organized presentation. This makes it easy to follow along with, and comprehend the material being taught. After leaving these trainings I’ve felt more insight into what my career path has in store, and the opportunities available within my position.

The trainings I’ve been apart of that are not effective are ones that are disorganized, and are put on by dysfunctional managers who feel their way of doing things is the best way even though it’s extremely ineffective. These types of trainings are set out to introduce certain concepts to help individuals better their skillset within the workplace. However, I’ve found when a dysfunctional manager is setting the standard for what is okay and what isn’t, the training becomes ineffective where I’m questioning the decision making and judgement of the presenter. This causes me to disengage and feel I wasted my time.

Overall the most effective interviews are those that aim to produce an outcome that benefits the individual in a way that is easily comprehendible and presented by a well respected manager.

References:

Ciere, M. (2026, May). Week 6 Learning Materials.