What does it mean that the pressure response audit?

Examine how you typically respond to pressure — fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

Example: Your manager announces a surprise deadline compression on Wednesday. You notice your jaw clench and your internal monologue fire up with counter-arguments about why this timeline is impossible. That's fight. Your colleague in the same meeting starts mentally composing her resignation letter. That's flight. The junior developer stares at his laptop and goes silent for the rest of the standup. That's freeze. The project lead immediately volunteers to absorb the extra work personally, canceling her weekend plans without being asked. That's fawn. Same pressure. Four different automatic responses. None of them were chosen.

Try this: Review your last five encounters with meaningful pressure — a tight deadline, a difficult conversation, unexpected criticism, financial strain, a conflict with someone whose approval matters to you. For each, write down: (1) what the pressure was, (2) what you did in the first 30 seconds, (3) which category that response falls into (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn). Look for the pattern. Most people discover that 3-4 of the five cluster around one or two default responses. That cluster is your pressure signature.