Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Personalities at Play Today

If you've had a chance to read Being Me, Being Free, you know it deals with four distinct personality types:
  • Playful Sanguine
  • Powerful Choleric
  • Perfect Melancholy
  • Peaceful Phlegmatic

I witness these everyday -- and I'm sure you do too.

For instance, last night, as soon as my daughter Meredith got home from her summer job working at a children's camp, she was ready for a crash session. Working with those children all day drains her physically and mentally. I, on the other hand, had been home all day and was looking forward to a run to the mall. My Playful Sanguine personality allows me to go, go, go and the more I'm around people, the more energized I become. Meredith, my Peaceful Phlegmatic, needs downtime after a long period of human exposure -- aka elementary aged kids at church day camp! So what did we do? Did we make it to the mall? Did we retreat to separate rooms?

What I've learned from my years as a teacher and from my training on personality profiling, led to a compromise. Meredith got to veg out in front of the TV for a while, got a bite to eat, and refueled. After about an hour, I brought up the subject of an outing to the mall. She reluctantly relented and three hours later, when we arrived home from the mall, we were both in good moods and actually got something accomplished that she had been putting off (getting a much needed new pair of glasses)!

Moral of the story/teachable moment: Peaceful Phlegmatics must have downtime, especially after a long day at work or school. Playful Sanguines have to realize that not everyone can run like the Energizer bunny and not everyone needs human interaction 24-7. So watch out for those people in your life who need to withdraw for periods of time. It's not that they're depressed and it's not personal -- it's just how they're wired.

Friday, July 3, 2009

  • Check out this Website to find out about your personality...its strengths and weaknesses. It's free!!
  • OneIshy.com

My books are HERE. You can order directly from me...or online from BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, or Target.com I am very excited!!! The profile pic is me along with my daughter, Meredith Grace. Meredith was the inspiration behind my book, Being Me, Being Free. She, more than anyone else, has helped me to realize we are who we are because that is how we were born -- wired!! Accepting ourselves and others for who we were created to be is very freeing, for ourselves and others. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Our goal should be to discover our strengths and work to increase them which will, at the same time, help decrease our weaknesses!!! I hope my book will inspire and motivate you and others to begin a journey of discovery about yourself and your loved ones, co-workers, and even acquaintances.

Understanding this arms you with more power to be the best you can be, along with allowing others to be who they were created to be!!!

There is a very practical quiz/checklist, at the end of the book. Have fun discussing this with your child while discovering more about him or her. There is also more valuable info at the end of the book that will provide tips for how to more effectively communicate with others so they will better "HEAR" what you are trying to say.