personality

What Your Office Says About Your Personality

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Office_Space

Take a minute to look around your office. Is it neat? Messy? Colorful? Bland? Do you have inspirational posters on your wall? A framed picture of your cat, maybe? Well according to author Lily Bernheimer, your office speaks volumes about who you are. She claims that the way people decorate and maintain their offices says a lot about their personalities.

Bernheimer believes that there are five types of offices (and five types of people who inhabit them):

Cluttered

  • What it looks like: An office filled with books, stacks of papers, pictures, knickknacks, coffee mugs, and colorful Post-it notes.
  • Who inhabits it: An extrovert who loves chatting with coworkers and lots of stimulation. These people tend to be cheerful, busy, and assertive.

Minimalist

  • What it looks like: Very sparse and neat without a lot of decoration.
  • Who inhabits it: A hard-working, disciplined, reliable individual. These people may not be as creative as their cluttered coworkers, but they are great at getting work done and doing it right.

Ever-Expanding

  • What it looks like: It keeps getting bigger and bigger. These individuals use their papers and personal items to keep claiming more space.
  • Who inhabits it: Dominant people who like to mark their territory. They tend to be assertive, ambitious, and not overly concerned about the needs of their coworkers.

Private

  • What it looks like: It’s tucked into a corner or surrounded by some sort of barrier.
  • Who inhabits it: An introvert who feels distracted and overwhelmed by too much noise or stimulation. These people tend to be creative and productive, but they need their own space in order to be effective.

Personalized

  • What it looks like: An orderly office that’s filled with personal photos, plants, artwork, and stylish accents.
  • Who inhabits it: An open, artistic, imaginative person. They like interacting with others, learning new things, and having the opportunity to be creative.

So what do you think? Does this seem accurate? Or is it completely off the mark? Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

 

Boult, A. (2016, February 25). The state of your office desk can reveal a lot about your personality. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12173768/The-state-of-your-office-desk-can-reveal-lot-about-your-personality.html

What Your Exercise Regime Reveals About How You Spend Your Money and Time

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Exercising

Do you have a favorite form of exercise? Maybe you prefer to work out in a traditional gym, or you like yoga, or you’re a huge fan of CrossFit? If you’re like most people, you probably gravitate towards a certain form of exercise. And research suggests that your choice can reveal a lot about you and the way you spend your money!

Here’s what data analysis has revealed about people who engage in four of the most popular forms of exercise:

  • Traditional gym workout – They spend less than $46 a month for membership. They aren’t adverse to eating fast food now and then. They also like to shop at “big-box” stores like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.
  • Yoga/Pilates/barre studio workout – They spend about $75 a month for membership. They enjoy shopping for antiques, grocery shopping, cooking, and their pets. They spend more on pet supplies than any other type of fitness enthusiast.
  • Cycling studio workout – They spend about $99 a month for membership. They tend to be a little bit free with their money. They enjoy buying shoes, gifts, and jewelry. They also like to travel and eat at high-end restaurants.
  • CrossFit workout – They spend about $120 a month for membership. They also spend a lot on CrossFit clothing! But otherwise, they tend to be fairly frugal. They’re less likely to spend money on trips, fancy restaurants, or high-end coffee and alcohol. They’re more likely to eat at casual restaurants and order things like pizza, Mexican food, and ice cream. They also enjoy home improvement projects.

So what do you think? Does this data sound accurate to you? Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

 

Bachman, R. (2016, February 24). Spin or yoga – what your workout says about you. The Wall Street Journal, pp. D1, D2.

Tales of Ambiversion

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I love my job2

Thoughts on influence, leadership, and identity

One of the best known “personality” tests in use today is the Myers Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). This assessment measures a person’s preferences among four dichotomies; the extent to which a person expresses these preferences determines how they experience the world — and how others experience them. The MBTI can be a powerful tool for helping people develop self-awareness, especially in the ways their preferences interrelate with others’ preferences.

One of the dichotomies that the MBTI measures is that of extraversion vs. introversion. However, a new term, “Ambiversion,” is being used increasingly as a way to describe those who seem to fit firmly in the middle of this scale.

Author and sales expert Daniel Pink writes about the ambivert in his book, “It’s Human to Sell.” Pink asserts that influential people, including the most effective salespeople, are neither extraverts nor introverts but ambiverts — people whose preferences and behavior patterns lie somewhere in the middle.

Why does ambiversion predict success? Pink writes, “Extroverts can talk too much and listen too little, [and] overwhelm others with the force of their personalities.” On the other hand, “Introverts can be shy to initiate, too skittish to deliver unpleasant news and too timid to close the deal.” Ambiverts, however, “know when to speak up and when to shut up, when to inspect and when to respond, when to push and when to hold back.”

Social commentator/blogger Daniel Kao expands this definition in several ways:

Ambiverts sit on the spectrum of social interaction right in between the introverts and extroverts. Ambiverts enjoy spending time with people, but can get worn out by people, as well. Ambiverts are also very capable of doing things alone, but spending an entire day alone can suck them into a depressed, unproductive mood.

Ambiverts love interacting with people, but in a very purposeful way. Ambiverts can have extremely animated and interactive conversations, or mellow and meditative ones. Ambiverts will defend both their personal time as well as their social time.

Ambiverts process information best when they process internally and externally. Ambiverts need time and space to process things on their own, but they also need people whom they can trust to process things with externally. In order for ambiverts to fully process information, they usually need both.

Ambiverts seek breadth of knowledge and influence, but dive deep when they are truly passionate. Ambiverts can be thought or action oriented, depending on the situation, but they are also oftentimes both.

The challenge for ambiverts is finding one thing to stick with. Because ambiverts do well socially and individually, it’s easy for an ambivert to become the jack of all trades, having knowledge in many different areas but not necessarily an expert on any of them.

What Type of Person Are You?

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TypeA

A lot of research has been done on the connection between heart disease and stress. It’s been found that people in stressful lines of work are at a higher risk of having a heart attack. Others claim that your personality and the way you deal with stress may have an impact on your health. For example, in 1959, Friedman and Rosenman claimed that there are two types of people: Type A and Type B. They described Type A people as being competitive, impatient, and always striving to do more in less time. They described Type B people as being calm and patient, and less hurried. They hypothesized that Type A people were more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than Type B people.

Which type are you? Take this quick quiz to find out!


DIRECTIONS:
Answer “yes” or “no” to each of the following questions:

  1. Do you find it difficult to restrain yourself from hurrying others’ speech (finishing their sentences for them)?
  2. Do you often try to do more than one thing at a time (such as eat and read simultaneously)?
  3. Do you often feel guilty if you use extra time to relax?
  4. Do you tend to get involved in a great number of projects at once?
  5. Do you find yourself racing through yellow lights when you drive?
  6. Do you need to win in order to derive enjoyment from games and sports?
  7. Do you generally move, walk, and eat rapidly?
  8. Do you agree to take on too many responsibilities?
  9. Do you detest waiting in lines?
  10. Do you have an intense desire to better your position in life and impress others?


RESULTS:
How many times did you answer “yes?”

  • 8 or more times – You’re Type A
  • 4 to 7 times – You have both Type A and Type B qualities
  • 3 times or less – You’re Type B

So are you Type A? If so, don’t worry. Early studies indicated that Type A individuals were at greater risk of developing heart disease. But later, researchers found that only certain aspects of the Type A personality are linked with heart disease. In fact, researchers have only found a strong relationship between “cynical hostility” and coronary disease. It’s only the Type A people who are moody, suspicious, resentful, distrusting, and quick to anger that are at greater risk. So most of you Type A people can rest easy! Unless you tend to be hostile much of the time, your heart should be just fine.

(And hey – even if you are an angry, hostile person, it’s never too late to change! Check out this website for some tips on how to control and eliminate those damaging emotions: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/controlling-anger.aspx)

 

Friedman, M., & Rosenman, R. H. (1959). Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings blood cholesterol level, blood clotting time, incidence of arcus senilis, and clinical coronary artery disease. Journal of the American Medical Association, 169(12), 1286-1296.

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