My History with The Personalities

Mid 70‘s:  A book called Spirit-Controlled Temperament by Tim LaHaye was making the rounds and as a pre-teen I picked it up and read it.  Didn’t understand a thing, but loved the idea of the various personalities.

Late 80’s:  Small, tight singing groups (think Wilson Phillips and First Call) were all the vogue.  In the interest of getting tighter, the director of my group introduced us to Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types
Well, I gobbled that book up and discovered I was an ENFJ, my husband was an ESTJ, and we were actually quite incompatible.  That’s about all I learned, (not helpful) but I still loved the idea of the various personalities.

Mid 90’s:  20 years and one divorce from my first exposure to the concept of personality styles.  I was no closer to understanding myself, much less what went wrong in my marriage, but I still loved the idea of the various personalities.  Thankfully, that’s when I was introduced to Personality Plus: How to Understand Others by Understanding Yourself by Florence Littauer.  Now HERE was some information I could use! Practical and full of application for everyday life, I dove into that book like the lifeline it was.  I even got trained by Florence herself on how to teach the material and I started shouting it from the rooftops any chance I had.

Interestingly, this passion for understanding how people get along was the start of my speaking career.  I had fun with, and was good at, teaching the information in a meaningful way.  Most importantly, people were eating this info up with a spoon!  And a career was born.

Current Day:

As I’ve taught this material, over the years a few key ideas have emerged

• Deep down, most people really want to understand and get along with the important people in their lives.  (Husband, wife, kids, parents, coworkers and clients.)
• People are hungry for tools to understand and engage positively with these people.
• The knowing (understanding) is actually fairly simple.  It’s the doing that’s difficult.
• It’s long process and no matter how much you practice it’s still difficult to get out of yourself and into the other person.  (I’m selfish and I want to do things MY WAY!)

The doing can be learned…you just have to want to do it.

What about you?  Are you interested in this subject? How would your life change if you were able to connect more effectively with those in your life?

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