A Quick Self-Assessment
[This assessment is also available as a free download. You can take the assessment here on this page, or, if you prefer, you can download it and fill in the form manually.]
Instructions on How To Evaluate Your Resilience-Readiness
When it comes to increasing your resilience-readiness, a few simple daily self-care structures offer you the most leverage. The better you take care of your mind, body, and spirit, the more resilience-readiness you can generate, and the more prepared you become to respond to challenges with an abundance of resilience.
This assessment is short, high-level, and subjective. It is made of up eight questions that focus on assessing how committed you currently are to taking great care of yourself. Your responses will give you a rough idea of how much resilience-readiness you can expect to have “on tap,” and therefore how successful you will likely be in mustering the resilience required to handle unexpected upsets.
With the Rating Scale below in mind, read each question and then decide which of the five ratings applies most truthfully to your current situation. There is no need to ponder over your self-ratings. And there are no right or wrong ratings. Do your best to use the Rating Scale consistently across all eight items.
Rating Scale:
1 = Just about never
2 = About a quarter of the time
3 = About half the time
4 = About three-quarters of the time
5 = Just about always
In the box to the right of each question below, write down the rating that applies best to you. To determine your Total Score, simply add up your eight ratings.
1
On a daily basis, how often do you keep all the agreements you make to take great care of yourself?
2
If you were to weigh yourself every day, how often would you find yourself delighted by how much (or how little) you weigh?
3
How often do you find you’ve gotten just the right amount of sleep at night, such that you can reliably and enjoyably go full speed ahead all day long, without “crashing” along the way?
4How often do you take an average of at least 15 minutes a day to just be still and intentionally do a “centering” practice such as deep breathing, meditation, prayer, or the like?
5
How often do you take an average of at least 15 minutes a day to exercise aerobically (i.e., vigorously, to the point of perspiring), such that your body feels well-exercised and invigorated?
6
How often do you take an average of at least 15 minutes a day to engage intentionally in a “creative” practice (i.e., an activity that falls outside of your work and your other daily responsibilities, and that connects you in a creative and refreshing way with some of your deepest passions)?
7
How often do you find yourself enjoying the delightful sensation that you are consistently right “at the top of your game?”
8
How much of the time do you feel your life is satisfactorily under your control and moving forward in a desirable, positive direction?
Your Total Score
How to Interpret Your Total Score
Here are some short (and possibly fallible) interpretations of your Total Score:
16 or Less: If your Total Score adds up to less than 16, you would do well to start taking better care of yourself right away. With such a low Total Score, your resilience-readiness is low, and you are highly vulnerable to the inevitable stresses caused by unexpected upsets and adversities.
Between 17 and 23: If your Total Score falls between 17 and 23, you would still do well to start taking better care of yourself right away. Your resilience-readiness remains low, and you remain at risk.
Between 24 and 31: If your Total Score falls between 24 and 31, you are likely to be riding along “in the middle of the pack.” You have a reasonable measure of resilience-readiness. With good luck, you may be able to continue to “get by.”
Between 32 and 36: If your Total Score falls between 32 and 36, your resilience-readiness is most likely pretty solid. Others probably regard it as enviable. Where there is still room to take even better care of yourself, you might want to “go for it.” The best is yet to come.
Between 37 and 40: If your Total Score falls between 37 and 40, you’re probably in the top one percent of the population in terms your resilience-readiness. Congratulations! Now all you need to do is sustain your high level of zillience and enjoy every day accordingly.
Possible Next Steps
As you look over the above assessment items, you may decide you are ready to take action to move one or more of your subjective ratings upward. If so, ResilienceWorks LLC can offer you a variety of instructional manuals and training programs to support you in taking action successfully. For more information, check out: www.ResilienceWorks.com
With regard to your responses to the assessment questions, you can find useful guidance in the instructional manual, The Resilience Manual: How to Thrive in Stressful Times. Each of the questions relates to a particular section.
Question 1: Keep Your Agreements––Section 4 & 5
Question 2: Eat Well––Sections 4 & 6
Question 3: Sleep Well––Section 4 & 7
Question 4: Daily Centering Practice––Sections 8 & 9
Question 5: Regular Aerobic Exercise––Section 8 & 10
Question 6: Daily Creative Practice––Sections 8 & 11
Question 7: Integrate All Seven Structures––Section 14
Question 8: Resilience-Readiness: The Big Picture––Section 3
What If Your Ratings Don’t Fit You?
If your find your Total Score lacks “face validity” (i.e., either it feels like it doesn’t “fit” your situation, or it simply appears to be inaccurate), take a look at how your used the Rating Scale. A frequent source of low face validity is not applying the Rating Scale consistently over all of the items. Another source of error might be your arithmetic. Double-check the addition of your eight ratings. And remember: These are your own self-ratings. Think about that.
Important Disclaimer!
This resilience-readiness assessment has not been statistically validated or normalized. Your Total Score simply reflects how you have chosen to rate yourself on your own self-care. The above interpretations of your Total Score are based primarily on many years worth of aggregated anecdotal evidence.