Your personal style has a great deal to do with the finding real satisfaction and success.
A young man named Allen had a great personal style. He was an incredible salesman (It was said he could trade ice cubes to polar bears for seal skins). And this fine salesman had a friend who worked in a manufacturing plant and wished he could find success like Allen and leave the daily drudgery of the production line.
Being a great guy, Allen agreed to take his friend on the road and show him how to make a lot of money selling goods and services.
It didn’t work!
You see, Allen had a sparkling personality and knew (automatically, without effort) what to say every time a prospect appeared; and they appeared everywhere. His friend was a bit shy and backward with people and no matter how hard he studied sales techniques he just couldn’t get it. It just didn’t work!
Often we think if a certain technique works for someone like Allen it will work for anyone. It’s not so. An individual’s personality can make an immense difference in their capabilities. According to Taylor Harman, who wrote The Color Code a New Way to See Yourself, Your Relationships, and Life, each of us is born with a basic personality. Aspects of a personality include talents such as being outgoing with people, such as Allen, or talents of being intuitive and shy, like his friend.
Each person has their own style, their own talents and abilities; and if they work with that style they are much more likely to find the true satisfaction in their efforts and the real success that is available for everyone.
Now you know if you prefer to be with a crowd of friends or sit in a corner by yourself. But the details of your personality are a lot broader and deeper than that and can make a big difference in how you should approach personal improvement. So how do you discover the real underlying you? How do you find the direction you need to go to find your bliss?
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, developed psychological typological theories that are the underlying ideas used to create the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire used by businesses and universities to assess individual personalities. Taking either the test in The Color Code or taking a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test is a good place to start. (You can find the Myers-Briggs at: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm) and The Color Code at your bookstore.
Other things you might try are a couple of exercises that can refresh your memory about your own personal likes and dislikes.
The first is a quick look at the successes you’ve already experienced. To do this exercise you grab a piece of paper and divide your life into five year increments and in each section list one or two things you did that made you really proud of yourself. This is a refreshing exercise in a lot of ways. It not only reminds you of the types of things that please you, but it also helps dispel some of the negative images you have of yourself.
Another exercise is to take a close look at the turning points in your life. Here you want to list the major events in your life. You might start with graduation from your high school (or your failure to do so). Marriage, having children, getting a job, going into the military all can be a key points where your life took turns to new directions. After making this list go back and note beside each item whether it was a turn for the better (Wow! was that ever a good decision.) or a turn for the worse (Boy am I sorry that happened.)
By taking a little time to do these bits of research on yourself you can avoid spending a lot of time and frustration on trying to do things that just won’t work just as Allen’s friend couldn’t find a way to be a good salesman.
Once you go through these processes you will certainly have a clearer and refreshed look at what kinds of areas you should look to in order to discover the real satisfaction that is true success.
Robert Smith is a long time student of self improvement methods. He is a performing storyteller and public speaker. For more on how to be more successful you see: http://www.aurelsoxn.com
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