I often describe the “running away” personality and the “running towards” personality.
When the running away person is awoken by their alarm clock, they immediately hit the snooze button. Ten minutes later, the buzzer goes off again. “Just ten more minutes,” they say to themselves, “I won't exercise this morning.” And again, they activate their friend, Mr. Snooze.
|Motivated by fear
This could happen three more times, and each time they determine that they will skip a vital activity in order to enjoy a few more minutes slumber. They have already decided to miss breakfast and they will shave/put on make-up in the car on the way to the office.
Finally, a full hour after their first alarm call, they leap out of bed, the image of their boss standing outside the office door, purple with rage at their continual poor time keeping is just too horrible to contemplate and it acts as their spur. These people are motivated by fear.
As someone famously once said: “Some people make things happen whilst others just stand and watch what happens.”
My take on that is: “A very few people make things happen, others just watch what happens. But the vast majority wonder what the heck happened!” The running away mindset falls into the last category.
|'Running towards' personality
Let's look at the other side of the coin; how a running towards personality handles their relationship with their alarm clock.
To begin with, our running towards person has invested some of their time the previous evening preparing for the next day: Their clothes are selected pressed, shoes cleaned, and notes are prepared for important meetings. In fact, all of the next day's objectives have been thoroughly rehearsed mentally and planned for.
When the alarm clock goes off, our running towards person typically awakes refreshed and completes final preparations for the day. They have plenty of time for exercising, for bathing and to eat a proper breakfast with their family. They are in control. They arrive at the office before most of their colleagues (80 percent of whom arrive at 8.55 am, just in time, only because they fear the consequences of being late) so that they can respond to emails and attend to essential administrative tasks, which would otherwise take up valuable business time.
Life for these people appears effortless and relatively stress-free — because they have made it that way.
These people are “winners.”
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