Some of us are hardwired to take on much more than we could ever finish in a lifetime or want to. There are times when we need to slow down, take inventory of what’s important and focus. As one of those people I thought of the reasons I try to do so much and can see a little of myself in all six of the personality types below, especially the superhero. Which type are you?

1. The noncommittal
You can’t concentrate or focus on one thing because there are so many other options. In most cases these temptations usually seem a lot more interesting than what you’re currently working on and hence many times win the battle for your attention. Turning off the TV, Facebook or whatever is keeping you from focusing should be priority number one!

2. The Yip Yip
If you’ve ever watched an episode of Sesame Street then you’ve seen the yip yip muppets that say ‘yep & uh huh, uh huh everything. Well sorry to say, but that’s you (and me at times)! For whatever reason you can’t say no, the word has disappeared from your vocabulary. It could be out of fear of angry reactions, disapproval or to avoid feelings of guilt. One thing you must do is get to the bottom of why you have difficulty uttering those two little letters. Then, get to practice using it, it’s a very handy tool to have in up you reply arsenal as you may need to use it quite often if prioritizing your life is a priority. Also, just as important as knowing how to say no is how to say yes, which I discuss here.

3. The flirt
You dabble a little in this project, then spend some time on another. You flip from task to task quickly without giving your full attention to one in particular. Your motto is any progress is good progress and multitasking is your specialty, or so you think. It’s been scientifically proven that multitasking actually isn’t very beneficial to the successful completion of a project. The operative word here being successful. But you continue to hurl all your balls at all your tasks hoping that some of them will get knocked out, but you might be a lot more productive if you tried aiming at one task at a time instead.

4. The great procrastinator
Procrastination is many times the anchor to our success, it slows down our progress, deadlines come and go, emails sit in our inboxes unread and books never get finished all because of that little white lie we tell ourselves of I’ll get to it later.  You have a lot to do, but put off doing it, even the most simple of things like returning emails or phone calls.  When you put things off until later inevitably more and more tasks will be added to your to do list, making it overwhelming to even look at what you have to accomplish.  Then you don’t wan to look at the list, so you push it aside and the cycle continues.  Do what you can as quickly as possible to prevent this time thief from stealing anymore of your most precious commodity!

5. The superhero
Like myself there are many of us that suffer from the Super (Wo)man Syndrome. I discuss it some here as we’ll, but basically it isn’t that you dread saying no, it’s that you love saying yes! You want to do it all, you’re excited about every project, idea or opportunity that comes your way. You hate to pass anything up for fear of missing out on a great opportunity. You are the definition of FOMO.  But can I clue you in on a little secret that I’ve learned since I suffer from this disease myself. Usually what happens is that we eventually getting bogged down in projects and wind up actually completing little to nothing. Like the kid at the party that doesn’t want to go to sleep for fear of missing out on something, we want to fight off that much needed rest which will keep us refreshed and functioning. I would suggest pulling back from everything, taking a break and evaluating what are the top three or four things you truly want and need to give your undivided attention to at the moment.

6. The jailbird
Some people feel trapped in their own lives and the easiest way to deal with problems is to retreat to their happy places and hope everything’s fine once they get back. It just so happens that for some people that happy place is in work! Maybe you have some problems you don’t want to face and filling your schedule with stuff to do is easier than coping with the issues that plague you. For me it’s the unhappiness of not having a family of my own at times, although these feelings come few and far between there are times they surprise me with a pop up visit. For you, these could be internal or external events or things, but getting to the root of it & dealing with it head on is the only thing that will help. Once the work is done and books or computers put away you’re still left to deal with the life you’ve built so take the time to build it around things that you enjoy and that matter the most.

God Bless and Here’s to a purposeFULL life!

Court