Shona Neff

Have you been losing sleep waiting for the rest of the list? Here are the remaining five of the 10 Things You Need to Know About Personalities. If you did not see or need to review the first five, click this link to Part 1 of this two-part series.

Without further ado, here we GO:

TOP 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PERSONALITIES (in no particular order) – Part 2

5. Each of the four personalities has emotional needs. People and personalities are like cars . . . when a car’s gas tank is empty it doesn’t work, when a person’s emotional gas tank is empty, they don’t work. This means they start gravitating toward their weaknesses. Read More. (more…)

Happy 2013! Many blogs are talking about New Year’s Resolutions about now. As a phlegmatic I try to avoid “resolutions because, as a phlegmatic, I need more flexibility than that word seems to insinuate. Goals are definitely a part of my new year vocabulary, but I don’t like to get too rigid. That is why I, the Personality Mechanic, am not writing a “New’s Year Resolution” post this year. I’ve opted for just good, solid personality information to kick off 2013. (I think my “10″ is much better and more informative than any Top 10 List David Letterman has presented.)

TOP 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PERSONALITIES (in no particular order).

1. Each personality is uniquely wonderful: No two people are alike. We tend to relate differently to people we don’t understand than we do those we know. If we know that others are unique and wonderful whether we “get them” or not, we are less judgmental and critical. If we know that WE are unique and wonderful, it makes it easier for us to embrace and accept who we are….AND who we are created to be. Personalities help us understand ourselves and others. Read More details. (more…)

In part one of Resolution Solutions we looked at strategies to help choleric and melancholy personalities approach self improvement for 2012. In part two I’ll provide helpful hints for the laid-back phlegmatic and the easily distracted sanguine.

Encouragement for the Laid Back and Easily Distracted

If you are either the phlegmatic or sanguine resolutions makers, I feel your pain. Being a blend of BOTH these non-task oriented personalities, resolutions used to make me break out in a cold sweat. A sweat from the fount of failure! (more…)

I don’t know about you, but New Year’s Resolutions give me a headache. Well, they used to. I always had such high hopes of accomplishing great things, but I usually failed miserably when it came time to follow through. How about you? What do you think of the self-improvement game as we flip the calendar to 2012?

For years my well-intentioned plans floated to the floor like the festive confetti of New Year’s Eve only to be swept away like yesterday’s trash. My resolutions were left behind as time marched forward. Ever been there? It’s quite depressing. However, when I learned about personalities I gained a new and improved outlook toward New Year’s resolutions. It made all the difference in the world and I want to share some practical solutions for those struggling with the traditional self-improvement of the season.

Tips for the Task Oriented

Choleric and melancholy personalities have a better chance of succeeding than do the sanguine and phlegmatic people of the world. The fact that they are the task-oriented temperaments gives them the edge. (more…)

In part one of my Costa Rica adventure, I shared some of the things I learned about my travel personality. Today, I will highlight a few more discoveries as I traipsed around the Central American country.

Perseverance

Phlegmatic personalities may not do things with the flair of a sanguine or the intensity of the choleric, but we tend to finish what we start. Part of our tour included racing along a zip line. My thinking: if you travel to Costa Rica, you may as well be able to say you zip-lined through the rain forest canopy. Well, I can now say it! I didn’t like it, but I did it. It was slow and steady (which is the typical phlegmatic way) and not very pretty.

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There was so much to share about this topic, it turned into a two-parter. I hope you enjoy part one and will join me again when I post part two.

Have you ever thought of traveling with a bus-load of tweens and teens? Probably not, but if you did, it probably stopped with that thought. Well, I actually did it! I toured Costa Rica accompanied by more than enough tweens and teens to scare the most hardened drill sergeant . . . and I liked it!!

I chaperoned my youngest son and his middle-school classmates along with the beloved Los Alamos Middle School Spanish teacher, Rita Sanchez. Our little band of globe trotters shared a bus with a large group of high-school students from the Midwest. We had a great time and this reluctant, phlegmatic traveler discovered a few things about my travel personality.

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Do different personalities drive you nuts during the holidays? We can try to run, but it isn’t always easy to hide when 1) every nook and cranny of your house has been invaded by company or 2) you are an “invader” in someone else’s home and you don’t know WHERE to hide. In part one of this holiday series we looked at understanding sanguine and choleric personalities. Today we take a look at the two introverted temperaments, the melancholy and phlegmatic.

The Holiday Melancholy

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Thanksgiving is next week, and Christmas is just around the corner. Most of us greet the holidays with giddy anticipation often mixed with a little dread. Festive gatherings stir a variety of personalities together and sometimes the results are explosive.

In this two-part series, I provide some personality tools to take the dread out of the holidays and equip you with understanding. So make yourself comfortable and get ready to learn about the holiday personalities dancing around the Thanksgiving turkey and the Christmas tree. You may even learn how to make yourself easier to be around in the process.

The Holiday Sanguine

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In part one of this two-part series we explored the sanguine and choleric personalities on the Las Vegas strip. Today the melancholy and phlegmatic tourists take center stage.

Melancholy Musings

Is it possible that something in the sanguine land of bling, flashing lights, and noise, would appeal to this quiet, organized personality? Believe it or not, there is! Traipsing through the loud, smoke-filled casinos easily overwhelms this sensitive, quiet-loving personality. However, when we sauntered through the Roman-influenced shopping mall of Cesar’s Palace, it seemed to be an atmosphere than this personality could relate. I don’t know if it was typical, but when strolled through it was not as raucous as most places along The Strip. There were some lovely pieces of art that could easily catch the melancholy traveler’s eye:

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My hubby and I recently visited the Las Vegas strip. Are you at all surprised that much of my sight-seeing adventures had me looking for personalities buzzing around us? I made one discovery that I’ll share up front . . . Las Vegas is “Land of the Sanguines!” However, I also saw evidence of the other three personalities in varying degrees. So, let’s jump right in and discover the personalities — Las Vegas style.

The Festive Sanguine

The glitz, the bling, the blinking lights, and ringing bells of the Strip were made for the sanguine personality. Not only do they love the loud and shiny, but they enjoy diving in and swimming in the sea of people. There is so much to do that this energetic traveler can play around the clock . . . literally!

I could have taken photos anywhere on The Strip, but when I saw this store in one of the many malls, I knew this was the image I had to capture:

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