Last week the lesson from my
coaching course focused on personality trait work.
Our class was given a list of 75 different personality traits,
and our assignment was to choose one to work on for the entire
week and report back to our class why we chose it, what we
"tried out" to work on the trait, and what transpired through
our efforts.
The personality trait I chose was:
Openness to Experience
I chose this trait because:
I often find
myself wanting to experience the secure comfortableness and
routine of my life. I am most comfortable when I know what
my day plans are, what I need to do, where I need to be and
when. I’m flexible when sudden changes in my plans occur,
but I’m much more at ease when things stay smooth and
diversions are to a minimum.
I find the ability to be open to experience especially important
in the thick of my workday, when I’m intensely focused
and it’s easy to forget about the simple things that
can refresh my perspective and give me joy.
Openness to experience has at least two meanings to me:
- Being open to experiencing new things outside of my
comfort zone.
- Impulsively creating new experiences on the fly in
the middle of my day.
What I decided to try out as a way of “working on” this
trait was:
Well, for one, I embedded in my mind that
my “project” for
this week was to work on Openness to Experience (OTE). This
humored me, as I found the idea of this self-experiment fun.
After that, I wrote the words “Openness to Experience” on
yellow square sticky paper and hung it right in front of
my workspace. I proclaimed my assignment of “Openness
to Experience” out loud to my significant other. I
wrote the letters “OTE” on the back of my hand
with a blue ballpoint pen after deciding Friday afternoon
to put my work aside and head down to a local bike path for
a mid-day 45 degree winter walk in the sun (the experiment
was working).
This is what transpired:
My intention of
working on the trait of Openness to Experience this week
was successful. When I decided in my mind that ‘this
was what I was going to do’ and put forth effort to
stay mindful of my task, I did things to support my intention.
Declaring my task on paper, to someone else, and to myself
held me further accountable to follow through.
Having the idea in mind of being more Open to Experience
somehow had the effect of giving me further “permission” to
be impulsive in creating new experiences, as I did when I
dropped my work and joined my companion in a mid-day walk
Friday. While on the walk, I looked at the big blue “OTE” on
the back of my hand under my glove and decided to create
more new experiences. The cold day and melting snow didn’t
deter me from scooping up a few handfuls and lobbing some
friendly snowballs at my companion as we walked. I soon found
myself in a snowball battle of wits thoroughly enjoying myself.
The snowball fight continued in our driveway after we came
home from our walk. I haven’t had as much playful fun
in months. If it weren’t for this assignment, I’m
sure I would have worked through the afternoon intensely
as usual, tired and exhausted by 5:00 p.m. Not this day.
.... The act of focusing on one particular personality
trait for a week, two weeks, or however long it takes, and
taking steps to work on it in whatever ways are relevant
can be life altering. Progress is always an option… as
long as we’re willing.
Just think, I have 74 more traits to experiment with. I better
go get me some more stickies. •
