Recovering Type "A"
Most of us have heard the term type “A” personality. A number of years ago someone told me they were a “recovering type A”. I remembered thinking, I wanna be that. Types A’s are known for going after what they want and not letting anything get in the way, including other people. I’ve been one for years and after a while, it’s just exhausting. As I look back on my childhood, I realize that was probably the reason I liked and thrived in x-country. Even though x-country has a team, it is really an individual sport that relies solely on the performance of individuals. I knew if I just pushed myself harder every practice, it would pay off at the meets. I didn’t have to learn any teamwork skills to be successful at it.
Take that mentality into real life and it doesn’t work so well. I used to own an advertising company with some sales reps. If you weren’t a self starter working for me in that company, it was going to be short lived because I had little tolerance for what I thought was lack of motivation. I would get frustrated with my sales people and just go sell it myself. It was a fairly dysfunctional situation. No wonder I don’t have that company any more.
Life has a way of providing multiple lessons until the accumulation of them start to stick or until we die. That sounds brutal, but it’s up to me to grow and learn and become more. It’s up to me to figure out that doing work, life and fun with other people is worth figuring out now and not later. It’s up to me to look for the best in people and expect the best in people to give them opportunity to thrive in my presence. It’s also up to me to give myself a break too and realize the only reason I used to drive so hard in everything was because I thought I would feel better when I got to the end. Never did.
So how does that look today. I start my days slower. I am adamant with myself to make sure that the first input everyday are things that quiet my mind or feed my mind with positive, uplifting material. By the way, I used to make fun of people who talked this way. That was before I learned this was the key to everything I ever wanted. See, just because I have released the type“A”ness of myself, doesn’t mean I let go of my dreams. In fact I have shorten path to them while simultaneously increasing my enjoyment of life, other people, fun and each passing moment. Sounds good to me.
