Can a Type A Personality become a Free Spirit?

Time for a catch up on what’s been happening in my life and a new project.

Life as an independent online coach is fabulous. I help people and earn as much as I did working my ass off in a corporate office for 40+ hours a week and a daily 1.5 hour commute. I now work when I want and where I want. I travelled through Europe for 4 weeks last year and kept the business going. All I need is a laptop and I can run my business from anywhere.

But I am an INFJ personality type and that means I am always looking for new challenges and I have one. This is not related to making a living but to working on something that I am fascinated by.

The plasticity of the brain is not new but the understanding of the brain has grown in leaps and bounds in the last few decades, and we now know that we can reprogram our brains. We have more synapses in our brains than grains of sand in the world, and these minute connections are changing and forming all the time depending on our thoughts and actions.

So why not take control of these connections? Sound simple, or not? Not simple but I believe doable, to some extent.

I am a classic Type A personality – organised, analytical, bossy and opinionated. But I am also an introvert, creative, and a healer. Type As are supposedly angry and aggressive but I am not. I am slow to anger and avoid conflict. But the rest of it fits.

So, what is my challenge? I have always envied free spirits – the opposite end of the spectrum from Type As. My challenge is to move along the continuum line between the Type A personality and the free spirit. I have no doubt that I will never get to the other end and I am not sure I want to, but one has to aim for something in order to land somewhere in between.

Let’s initially look at the top 12 characteristics of a Type A personality. Then, in my next post, we will look at the characteristics of a free spirit, and I will outline the challenges I have set myself so that I can hopefully start sliding along the continuum line towards freeing up and relaxing.

Type A Personalities….

1. Hate wasting time. Life is short and there is so much to get done.
2. Constantly have a to-do list and are making plans. Crossing off items on the list is a sublime experience.
3. Are impatient and want everything to happen instantaneously.
4. Are stressed and anxious more often than others because they really care about outcomes.
5. Suffer fools badly and are judgmental. They don’t understand the concept of not being capable of doing something – have trouble understanding the inadequacies of others. They have a low tolerance for incompetence.
6. Take things to heart. They are emotional and conscientious, again because they care.
7. Worry a lot. They are catastrophists and always have a plan for the worst-case scenario. They worry about the future but also replay a mistake over and over in their heads
8. Don’t know how to relax. They prefer to be busy. They can find it hard to sleep because of thoughts spinning around. Walking is for getting from point A to point B in order to get something done.
9. Are perfectionists – mistakes drive them crazy.
10. Are workaholic and goal oriented. Once they figure out what their life work is, there isn’t much else that interests them. But they get discouraged easily and give up to start something new.
11. Have nervous behaviours like nail biting, teeth grinding and fidgeting, hair twirling.
12. Interrupt others because they have already understood the concept of what the other person is saying and want to move on. Time is short.

So there you go. Do you recognize yourself in those points? If so, stay with me as I figure out how to take each issue and wind my way towards the stance of the free spirit. It will be an interesting and, hopefully, enlightening journey.

Meanwhile, let me know in the comments if you feel you fall into this camp and would like to make some changes too.