Born This Way…
We repeatedly tell clients who are Smart Freedom or Organic Freedom: Don’t beat yourselves up trying to file. You are not natural filers. You were born this way. Sure, you can fight against your natural inclinations and work to become better at something difficult for you. Right handed people can work to become left handed. But, why? Other than bragging rights, a right handed person writing with their left hand is just making everything harder for themselves. This is the same if you’re organizing your life and possessions in ways that are not naturally easy for you. You don’t have to be a mess. But, you sure as heck don’t have to file to get organized.
Personality Type Theory Isn’t Bunk
Some people think our method of organizing according to personality type is bunk or the equivalent of organizing according to horoscopes. It’s all a big nothing burger. Obviously, these same people think horoscopes are bunk too. Personality type theory has been around since Ancient Greece. Even if the science behind Hippocrates theory is indeed bunk, his observations are what you’d observe in humans today. It’s hubristic to dismiss outright, millennia of observation about mankind. These same folk never adequately explain the differences a parent sees in their children at a young age. There is always environmental influence amongst the general population. But within a family? Outside of birth order or maybe gender, there isn’t much explanation beyond personality for why some kids gleefully make their bed and others don’t. As a parent of three growing boys, I’ve watched and it’s jaw dropping.
We Are Hardwired
In a million years, my two oldest boys would never voluntarily make their bed. Yet the other day I caught my three year old in his crib “making” his bed. He’d asked a few months ago to make his bed but I said, “You can’t really ‘make’ a crib.” Clearly, he disagreed. He spread out his comforter and perfectly arranged his stuffed animals. He came out to ask for help getting his comforter perfectly flat, which is difficult in a crib. And yes, I realize he is quite old to be in a crib but that’s another blog posting about me needing to rearrange my boys’ bedrooms.
Born This Way or That Way
Now, birth order could explain this as this particular son is the baby of the family and therefore watches me harangue his older brothers to make their beds. But, then why didn’t the Pixies’ baby brother (Organic Freedom) never voluntarily make his bed? Our mother certainly nagged us to do so but I (Classic) was the only one to heed that siren song — our sister, Katie, the other half of PixiesDidIt is the same as him. Why didn’t birth order work on that guy? Clearly, gender isn’t the answer either. So what is it? You’ve got it, personality. In addition, my son didn’t just make his bed, he yelled at me for messing it up when I bumped into that gray blanket he had carefully draped over the railing as I was straightening something. He also has done this more than once. You could knock me over with a feather if that kid ends up as anything other than a Classic.