Do the front desk folks at your health club think you've moved out of town? Are those favorite pants from five years ago, still hanging in your closet waiting for you to loose those ten pounds? Everyone knows that the best route to wellness includes exercise, eating right, and managing stress. Why then, do so many of us find it difficult to stay on track with a new, healthier lifestyle? The answer is simple if you understand how our natural personality relates to behavior change.

        Just like everyone is right or left handed, everyone has an inborn, natural way of moving through the world. Some of us keep piles on and around our desk, somehow knowing that the bill for the mortgage payment is about two-thirds of the way down the stack by the telephone and due tomorrow. Others of us will open the envelope containing the mortgage bill when it comes, and place it in a red file, representing current bills to be paid, mark the due date on the outside of the folder, and place the file in the front of the top desk drawer. Yet another group of us will open the bill, grab our checkbook, and pay it then and there just to be done with it, since the amount of effort it takes us to remember to pay it later costs us more than the interest money we would lose. We look at each other and shake our heads wondering how the other ever gets anything done. "All she must do is type file labels and sort papers!" or "I could never find anything in that mess!" Yet, we can all put our hands on our own bill, and successfully get it paid on time. This inborn way applies to all areas of our lives, including our eating habits, most natural physical activities, and the way our bodies react to stress.

       As we move through our lives, we learn how to compensate and adjust to the expectations of others. Some of us had to change away from our natural way of doing things in order to survive hostile home environments or to gain the approval of the people we loved. Some of these adjustments are healthy for us, others are not so healthy. More importantly, although the behavior has changed, the inborn preference has not. The adjusted way is more difficult and causes strain because we are behaving against the way our system was designed to function. Additional stress often comes from the concern that something may be wrong with us if our natural behavior doesn't fit the expectations of others.

       Personality type helps us understand our natural behavior and our sources of personal energy. Armed with this self knowledge, we can tap into the power of our natural personality type, and turn workouts into fun. We can also stop beating ourselves up if we haven't been able to succeed using someone else's natural style.

       If you are new to Myers-Briggs personality type, haven't given it much credence, or just need to review which type describes you, visit our main personality type page and read up on personality type.

© Copyright 1999-2007 by Joy Koenig, M.D. All Rights Reserved.

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