My Habits
I had a lot of fun reading the habits my sisters posted on their blogs. I haven't been 'tagged' to write 7 facts/habits about myself, but I'm sure that I am about to be, so here it goes:1 - I spend much more imaging what life was, is, or will be like, than BEING in life in real time. In other words, I'm a big time dreamer, and have a great time channel surfing mentally. While this can be a liability if I start to spin a current perception into a distorted projection of the future, I usually know my tendency well enough, and the power of putting a positive spin on everything that comes through my mental processor, that I can usually make this habit into an asset. This leads to the second part of this habit/fact, which is that I love everything to do with the mind. I love affirmations, because I know they begin working the second that I repeat them (I recommend mythoughtcoach.com for affirmations, meditations, and guided workouts, which can also be downloaded as a podcast onto your ipod). I suppose it started when I was about 10 and my Dad hypnotized me deep enough for my hand to float up like I was underwater. I later learned that visualizing success for exams, or other challenges, put the mind to work in ways I could never have imagined, and still don't understand. As one of three orthodontist partners in a practice, I play the role of the HR department and practice psychologist/psychiatrist, and love it. More than anything, I am known as the champion of improving your weaknesses by asking for feedback and surrendering your pride for the team. Whew. I think that I could right a book about the stuff I've learned. My champion self-help gurus are Anthony Robbins with his "Personal Power" series of cassettes from the 80's, Daniel Goleman's 'Working with Emotional Intelligence', Covey's SON Steven M R Covey's 'Speed of Trust', 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins, Thich Nhat Hanh's Mindful Living: A Collection of Teachings on Love, Mindfulness, and Meditation. I use the Stresseraser (stresseraser.com), Yoga, and go on long distance runs. It's me. It's what I do. Someday I'll go on the Orthodontist circuit.2 - My Meyer's-Briggs type is ENFP, a.k.a. "Champion", meaning I champion ideas - and just to demonstrate that fact, I also recommend "Please Understand Me", which is all about personality types. With my tendency to think out loud, I have to watch it or I tell someone more than they needed, or perhaps wanted to know. At work I asked my team members to give me visual cues or tactile cue if I start talking too much to a patient or parent. 3 - I am very visual. I like to have a pen in my hand when I want to describe something, because the drawing is an integral part of my explanation. I think I would have made a very good deaf person, because I respond so quickly to visual cues, and so slowly to sound cues, that it makes you wonder if I am partially deaf. I would say that it's actually more likely that I HEAR so MUCH that my ears get over-stimulated easily, while my eyes remain ready for the smallest cue. I do better talking face-to-face with someone, because I can pick up so much from their expressions, their posture, and so forth. Lisa learned early that she can signal for me to turn left or right by pointing. We have turned at places that she didn't want me to when she was simply pointing at something interesting out the window. My staff members can get me to their chair the fastest by giving the pair of gloves they are holding for me a little shake. The hearing part of me gets confused because it also hears everything I am saying after I think it, sometimes almost like an echo in a cell-phone, or like feedback from a sound system. I just hate it when the mic squeaks in my head. That's why I wish I could just speak in sign language when I have a lot I am processing. Part of the reason I know the hearing part of me is working well is the ease that I have with learning foreign language. I learn best by hearing it first, then learning how to write it, and not the reverse. If I learn how something is spelled before I hear it, I will often permanently learn the pronounciation wrong since I SEE the spelling in my head much stronger than I HEAR the way the word is said. Oh, and for another word from a sponsor, I recommend Pimsleur's Language Lessons for any foreign language that you really want to be able to speak and understand. I have only done German through this program, but have plans for French down the road. Japanese I learned on my mission to Hiroshima, and I learned Spanish in college, and from everyone in California that I could speak it with. 4 - Story telling. I love to tell stories to my kids, and anyone else who will listen. I spend much of my time inhibiting my creative side, biting my tongue because people just don't talk that way to eachother. I am fortunate to work with children as an orthodontist, where I am allowed quite a bit of uninhibited silly talk. I understand what is going on in Robin William's brain when he is going off in a million directions at once. I don't have his talent for expressing it, but I can think that way. It's an asset and a liability. It's me. That's all for now, I need to sleep