Type: A and Type: B - the two personality types among us humans. As they are so polar opposite, those who linger towards the Type A side of the spectrum are more likely to be more driven, focused, organized, put-together, but they are also more susceptible to heart attacks, mental breakdowns, and become emotionally stressed. Man, what a deal huh?
Those who flock more towards the Type: B side of the spectrum, are more laid back, carefree, go-with-the-flow type of people. I am not one of them. Now naturally I believe Type: A people are the better side of the spectrum, but I may be biased. Neither Type: A nor Type: B personalities are more superior, we are just different. Being I go day-to-day as a Type:A personality, I thought it would be fun to give you Type:B folk a little glimpse of what it's like to be in our shoes. Here are 13 quirks of a Type: A personality:
1. We Have Lists, Lists, & More Lists.
Frankly, I don't know any Type: A personality that doesn't have sticky notes everywhere for everyone to see - myself being one of them. It's not just a 'To-Do in a day' type of list, we are talking 'once you cross something off, you find something new to add on' list. It's a never-ending stress creating piece of paper we all enjoy. I swear not a day goes by that I don't have a new list somewhere on my counter. I write lists to talk to people about certain things, to schedule certain things, even to check my schedule. I am constantly making sure lists are up-to-date and grocery lists are never empty. If our life is quiet for even a minute, we question ourselves and wonder what we missed, or what is wrong.
2. There Are Morning Alarms, Day Alarms, Evening Alarms..
This one is pretty obvious, I hope. We need a 'Wake Up' alarm, a 'You can't shower now' alarm, a 'Now you can't eat' alarm, and multiple similar alarms throughout the day or else we won't be anywhere on time. During school, I have to have an alarm to take a break because my schedule gets so packed! It's hard being a busy girl with so much to do. If you have to set an alarm to remember to eat, you are definitely Type: A.
3. The Non-Stop Worry
If there were a chronic illness for worrying constantly, Type: A personalities would all suffer. We put thoughts into our own heads and create situations that haven't even been thought of yet. We put bad thoughts into our heads and obsess over that outcome way too many times. We worry about your brothers moms step brothers girlfriends dad before you even tell us what happened. I'm pretty sure all Type: A personalities have grey hair by age 30. If you wanted to know what our inside voice sounds like on a day-to-day basis, it goes a little something like, "Well what if this happened, or what if I did this but the outcome would be completely different. AHH! F*ck!" Did I mention that we worry?
4. Procrastination Mixed With ADD
Okay before I start on this one, I want everyone to know we all procrastinate at some point in our lives. So, now that that is covered we can talking about how typically procrastination with Type: A personalities is not a thing - ever. We are more like a squirrel hopped up on cocaine when it comes to getting things done. We will start a task, and find another task to add to our never-ending list, and focus more on that task than the original task we were trying to complete. Distractions are a huge part of our everyday life, and there is sadly nothing we can do about it.
5. We Are So Passionate
This is a little contradictory towards the last bulletin, but when we start a task, we go in wholeheartedly and complete the task as best as we can. Now I'm not saying that we get it done in one setting, but we get it done well. Type: A personalities are very passionate about a lot of things. Whether it be dealing with work, family or friends we always consider everyone into our choices.
6. We Are Sappy Sally's
If you're Type: A and not emotional, you're an a**hole. Type A's are so emotional often enough that it tends to affect our daily life. We seem to get lost in our thoughts often. We also tend to know a lot about the world around us, and that is why we don't let the world around us get in the way of anything we want. Type A's are also known to be the advice-givers.
7. We Are Control Freaks
Don't take this in a bad way, but we are complete control freaks. Not in the way that we want to know your every move, who you're talking to, etc. For some, it's "My way or the highway!" but for most, we want control in the way that we feel safe knowing we have authority of the situations we are in. This is why your leaders, president of organizations, coordinators are often Type: A. They want to exercise their control in healthy ways that will benefit them, and others around them. We want to know what our dinner is next week, today. We want to plan our work weeks, with family schedules months in advance so we know it is secured and ready to go. Some may say we are crazy for it, but hey at least we know what's going on at all times!
8. Perfection Is Our Favorite Enemy
Everyone knows that Type: A personalities are perfectionist. Nothing is ever good enough, and we can always be doing more. Most of the time, that takes a tole on us and it negatively affects the atmosphere around us. We don't intentionally try to hurt anyone by criticizing or correcting, it's just in our blood. Type A's are also very hard on themselves. We know we can always do better than what we are currently doing, and it ruins a lot of people's self-esteem.
9. We Re-Organize Daily (Kind Of..)
So unlike Type: B people that could careless about how everything looks around them symmetrically, Type A's re-organize absolutely everything quite a bit. Personally, it's because I get bored with what I see day after day. We always strive to have the nicest things, and the best looking everything. Our living rooms and bedrooms always seem to be different each time we have guests over. Things may be tilted differently, the clock may be on a different wall, etc.
10. Conversation Is Short & Sweet
Talking on the phone with a Type: A is always condensed and to the point. We don't have time to gossip and grumble about this and that. We have too much to do. When we are talking in person with someone, we often cut them off. Not to be rude, but to be right. Why keep a conversation going when it's all nonsense, right?
11. Everything is FAST
We walk fast, talk fast, and live fast. Everything we do is for a reason and we don't have time to dilly-daddle. If we wanted to dilly-daddle, we would put that in our schedule and do it on our own time. Avoiding lines is one of Type A's specialties. Walking with a purpose everywhere we go, often gives us a more mature persona. As much as we would love to stop and smell the roses, our brains are elsewhere distracting us.
12. The Spotlight Is Our Favorite Spot
OK so it may not be our 'favorite' spot, but it's where we feel most comfortable. It's closely connected to our control issues. Type A's often get called "Attention Whores" but someone has to do it right? Being in front of others is something that isn't scary to us, and we often look forward to all eyes on us.
13. We Can't Control the Future, But We Can Plan For It.
Planning, planning, planning. What else is a Type: A good for? Along with being controlling, we want to know what's going on in the future now so we can expect the worst. We make plans to plan things with others. We plan our weddings 12 years in advance, and just change things here and there. When Type A's go on vacation, we plan for every type of weather regardless of what the radar says.
We may be crazy, controlling, fast-paced, and literal, but we do have the best damn looking schedules you will ever see!