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Reading 1: The Type A personality, Definition, Behavior & Characteristics

What is a Type A personality

When they face frustration and insecurities some people choose to become depressed while others choose to become type A’s. A type a personality is the personality type that results from the choice a person makes to deal with these insecurities rather than ignoring them.

A type B can become a type A after facing a dramatic problem but before that can happen he has to have the tendency to become a type A. If a man was very rich and then an economic down turn made him poor then he may turn into a type A in order to overcome the financial insecurity he is suffering from.

On the other hand this man may not become a type A and remain helpless or depressed if he didn't have the tendency to be a Type A.

So the type A personality is not inherited but rather it results from combination of the tendency to become a Type A and of facing certain life events.

The tendency to Become a Type A

When it comes to personalities Beliefs are more important than genetics. Suppose that the rich guy who became poor had a belief that he can never rebuild his fortune again, what would have happened to him?

In this cases he wouldn’t have managed to become a Type A because he was going to think that his actions will be useless. (see the article limiting beliefs for more information on that topic)

In some cases, depression can be defined as the inability to find a way that allows you to release your frustration. If you cant find a job and don’t know where to look for one then you may become depressed. However if the city you live in was full of job opportunities then you wont become frustrated or depressed because you have a way out. Type A’s seem to always know their way and that’s why they always have lots of things to do.

Type A Personality Characteristics & Behaviour

The Type A is an ordinary normal person operating at his maximum possible speed. He wants to achieve a big goal but he thinks that time is very limited and as a result he develops the following behaviour:

• Exaggerated Sense of time urgency: Since the type A thinks that time is running out and since his goals are too big he always races with time. If you want to lose a type A in few days then waste his time (by making long phone calls or let him wait too long)
• Competitiveness: The type A is a very competitive person, he considers everything to be a challenge. He is challenging the circumstances that led to his insecurities and he will challenge every thing else that stands in his way.
• Multitasking: The type A can handle more tasks at the same time than ordinary people . You can easily know that a person is Type A if you found that he is involved in at least five unrelated activities while performing well at them all.
• The Price for Over Achievement: Over achievement does not come for free. Type A’s are subject to tremendous amounts of stress. Their life style is the main cause of this stress they suffer from (always running, having lots of things to do & racing with time)

Dealing with Type a Personalities

Losing a Type A is very simple, just waste his time!!
If you found that a type A doesn’t want to talk much on the phone and you kept talking he may avoid speaking to you again.

If you were trying to sell him something better do it now because if you told him to come next week you won’t see him again (see thepsychology of selling & marketing for more information).

Respect The Type A’s sense of time urgency by not making him wait for long periods of time. When you plan to hang out with a Type A make sure that you arrive on time and its even better to have a plan for what you are going to do. Type A’s hate uncertainties not because they can’t handle them but because they don’t know how much time will it take them to go for an unknown task.

Final Words for Type A’s

Learning how to manage your stress levels is an essential life skill you should have else you will be exposing your health to severe damage. If you managed to eliminate this stress you will have the strengths of a Type A and the good health of a Type B.

Reading 2: Practical person definition (why are some people so practical)

What is the definition of a practical person??

From a personal development point of view Practical people are the ones who omit useless and unimportant details for the sake of reaching bigger and more important goals.

So why are some people so practical and why are others the quite opposite?

In thisarticle i wont just tell you about the definition of practical people but i will also tell you about the reason that makes some people so practical.

Defining the practical person

The following points can help make the definition i gave of the practical person more clear. A practical person will usually:

• Read a book even if its stained or old
• Ignore the small useless details
• In most cases he will care about the function more than the appearance or any other aspect
• Will hardly procrastinate or waste time
• Will always keep the big goal he wants to reach in his mind

Why are some people so practical?

Yesterday i wanted to tell a friend of mine something using the blackberry service (in case you don't know about it , its a service similar to sending text messages to people on their phones)

Usually i first say hi, ask the person how he is doing then tell him about the thing that i want to say. I consider myself a practical person but i am not practical to the extent that makes me ignore such important details (greeting the person..etc)

Before writing the message i discovered that there is a problem with the keypad that prevented me from typing quickly. At this point i realized that i will spend a lot of time typing if i started my usual conversation and that's why i told my friend what i wanted right away.

For some reason i became so practical to the extent that i ignored greeting my friend. Of course this is not right but what i care about the most is knowing the psychological factors that were behind such a change in my behaviour. Here is what i found about practical people:

• They have limited time and resources: Had the keypad been working properly i wouldn't have been that practical and i would have wasted some time greeting my friend before getting into the important topic. That's another reason why Type A personalities are always practical.
• They have big goals: Practical people have big goals. Of course the word big here depends on the context. When i wanted to send my friend the message my big goal was delivering it to him
• They Care the most about the shortest possible path: Practical people care about the shortest possible path that can help them reach their goals. That's why they ignore silly details and useless actions that will only waste time
• They have a high self esteem: In the Solid Self confidence program i said that some of the main reasons that result in procrastination are being afraid to test your own self worth, being afraid to face your problems or fear of failure. Practical people have a high self esteem because they run into their problems taking the shortest possible path.

The best example that can show you the difference between a practical person and a non practical one is the example of reading a book. A practical person won't have any problems reading a book even if the pages were torn or if something was wrong with the book while the non practical person will prefer to wait until he buys a brand new copy before he can read it.

Introvert + Type A Personality + Practical ?

Sesuatu yang menarik saya temui dari pembacaan saya dalam genre psycology. Sedikit sebanyak motivasi buat diri. Apabila kita tahu dimana potensi diri kita dan berusaha perbaiki untuk jadi lebih baik. Optimakan sebaik mungkin potensi diri yang ada. 

Bila diperhatikan, sikap dan karakter Type A itu sememangnya terkena banyak pada diri namun untuk beberapa perkara sikap introvert lebih menonjol. Hmm..cumanya saya masih belum kuasai sepenuhnya multitasking method dan pengurusan stress dengan baik.


Untuk multitasking ia perlu satu teknik mengawal fokus yang hebat dan saya sedikit kurang mahir dan masih perlu diperbaiki. Ini adalah kerana saya sangat perlukan masa yang agak lama untuk hadam beberapa teori (jika melibatkan sesuatu yang perlu difahamkan). Jika berkisar tentang perkara teknikal saya amat mudah dan cepat tangkap untuk belajar. Mungkin saya perlu benar-benar fokus dan ambil masa untuk fahamkan bagi perkara bukan teknikal. 

Semestinya sikap ingin "segera siap" itu tidak sesuai di implementasikan pada sebahagian disiplin ilmu.

Pengurusan stress InsyaAllah boleh disenergikan dengan pendekatan rohani, Haa.. disini menariknya bila kita dapat integrasikan cabang ilmu psikologi dan ilmu kerohanian. Sangat melengkapkan.

Praktikal? 


Saya kira untuk beberapa perkara yang tak serius dan remeh saya lebih praktikal tetapi pada masa yang sama saya akan jadi lebih complicated dan detail jika perkara itu serius untuk diselesaikan segera dan berdepan (tidak lari dari masalah, sebaliknya mencari solusi). 

Sesuatu yang menarik, saya sukakan pendapat dan idea pelbagai dan juga perbincangan. Terkadang jika terlalu terbeban ada satu state yang saya panggil "blur". Saya kira ini defensive diri untuk ambil pilihan tidak memikirkan sesuatu perkara. hah! 

Saya terfikir, bagaimana untuk meraikan semua konsep ini agar lebih optima. Hmm.. saya harus lebih banyak membaca :)