Motivation vs Personality

15 Invaluable laws of Growth by John Maxwell, I hadn’t seen the book in a long while because I left it at home when I went for NYSC. I briefly flipped through it hoping I’d pick something that would be helpful and I did.

Not everyone gets motivated the same way or is motivated by the same things. To give yourself a fighting chance to become consistent in your growth, start by leveraging your personality type to get yourself going.

Phlegmatic: The strength of people with this personality type is that they are easygoing and likable. Their weakness is inertia. if you’re phlegmatic, how can you motivate yourself? By finding the value in what you need to do. when phlegmatics see the value in doing something, they can be one of the most tenacious (meaning stubborn) of all personality types.

Choleric: The strength of people with this personality type is that they take charge easily and make decisions quickly. Their weakness is that if they are not “in charge,” they refuse to participate. If you are choleric, how can you tap into your internal motivation? By focusing on the choices you can make. Every person is in charge of his own growth. Choose how you will grow and stick with it.

Sanguine: Fun loving, they are often the life of every party. Their weakness is often lack of focus. If you’re a sanguine, how can you motivate yourself to grow? By making a game of it. If that seems impossible, then give yourself rewards for incremental successes.

Melancholic: They are life’s perfectionists. Attention to detail is their strength. But because they desire to do everything perfectly, they are afraid of making mistakes. if you are melancholic, how do you motivate yourself beyond that fear? By focusing on the joy of learning details and the potential for developing a level of mastery over your subject matter.

As you can see, every personality type has its strengths. You need to tap that strength in your personality to set yourself to set yourself up for success when it comes to motivation.

I highlighted Phlegmatic & Sanguine because from observation & personality tests I’m a sang-phlegm, Primarily Sanguine and Secondarily Phlegmatic. When I read this portion of the book for the first time, I was like AHA! Now I understand, I intuitively to use those techniques but I never really understood why. On the sanguine side I use the technique of turning it into a game in classes, so I’m about to sleep or I want to enjoy the class, I engage actively in the classes sometimes saying one or two funny things or just answer questions, others might be quiet or just laid back but I don’t feel out of place or that I’m acting weird because I understand that that’s the only way I’d not be frustrated or bored. As a phlegmatic I always want to understand the value or importance of doing something because I could easily lose interest, it might seem normal that everyone does that but then I know the kind of high-level questioning/analysis I do before getting into anything and truth be told once I’m in, I’d be very committed till I stop seeing the importance then I’d have to remind myself again of the importance but if my view has changed then I’d simply opt out because it’s difficult for me to fake interest & commitment.

I can only speak about those two, please people who belong to other personality types what’s it like?