Storyboarding to fit your personality type


Yesterday, I had a long conversation with a friend who had, years ago, taken
a three day workshop on Myers-Briggs personality types. She said this course
revolutionized her life because understanding her personality type and that
of her children make it so much easier to understand them and communicate
with them. Last week, I went to do a little newspaper article on another
personality type paradigm called DISC, which isn't quite so complex as
Myers-Briggs, and parallels another personality typing course I took years
ago in a Sunday school class that talked about Choleric, Sanguine,
Phlegmatic and Melancholic personality types.

Many of us have come across these paradigms, or others, perhaps based on
colors or different hats. How do these relate to storyboarding?

I need to storyboard my life because I am an ENFP---an Extroverted,
iNtuitive, Feeling and Perceiving type according to Myers-Briggs, an I,
according to DISC and a Sanguine according to the classical personality type
model.

I need to plan and impose some discipline on my spontaneous, dreamy,
fun-loving personality or I'd never get a lick of work done. I also have to
trick my subconscious into thinking that certain things like cleaning the
birdcage or dusting are fun-filled escapades or I'll procrastinate forever.

I realized recently though that the storyboard was working too well. I was
being really disciplined. I was chained to my computer. I was following my
plan. But, I was starting to feel lonely and depressed and, well, sick and
tired of discipline and order. So, I threw off the traces and felt like an
arrow shooting out of a tightened bow. I had to stop and let myself drift
and play and be around people and let things happen in unexpected and
surprising ways because that's my nature and it's okay to be that way and if
I don't allow myself to express that side of my nature I will shrivel up and
die inside.

But, I'm confident that I can use the storyboard to get myself back on track
so that I can harness all the energy created by allowing myself to live for
a season in what suits my personality the best.

For those of you who are already tightly focused and disciplined, who find
the idea of letting go, being spontaneous and dreaming foreign, difficult,
and even a little scary, storyboarding can help you develop that side of
your nature, help you get out of your comfort zone and lean how to smell the
roses and enjoy life.

You can use the good habits you already have in planning to plan some down
time, some fun time, some time to cultivate some dreams and vision.

The point is this: you can adjust your storyboard to suit your personality,
to work with your strengths and to give you the motivation to work on habits
that correct your weaknesses.

Happy storyboarding,

Deborah

Dreaming big dreams

Saturday night, I attended the 20th anniversary of Doug and Meredith Ward's coming to Kanata Baptist Church. When they arrived in Kanata in 1984, the city had only 25,000 inhabitants. The church had an old house on Hazeldean road dubbed "the mouse house" because of an infestation of mice. There was no church building, only meetings in a garage or a school gym.

Over the course of the evening, we watched slides of the various changes in the life of Kanata Baptist. The building of a church, the building of a whole complex of non-profit, geared to income housing, the expansion of the church building, more than doubling the amount of space, the establishment of a home for abused teenagers, and the establishment of Sylvia House, a hospice for the dying. Though the teen home no longer exists, it was one of many ministeries that began with a vision, and became reality.

Doug was repeatedly described as a visionary during the evening, but more than that, Doug has also been someone who allowed other people to bring their visions forward and test them, and, if their vision caught, allow the church body to take hold and bring that vision to life.

Now, Kanata Baptist Church is deemed one of the most successful churches in Canada. Doug mentors other pastors throughout the country. Kanata has more than 100,000 people and is now part of the city of Ottawa.

What if the vision had stayed small? What if it never expanded beyond the rickety mouse house on Hazeldean Road? My life was changed forever after I walked inside the door 14 years ago. The changes came in increments, but I can attribute those changes to the good pouring out of grand visions of a small group of people who dared to believe in something beyond a garage and a school gym. Hundreds of others have been impacted in the same way.

How big is your vision? Do you dare to dream? Are your dreams only about your own success and that of your immediate family? How about expanding your dreams? Why not include service to others and see how that makes you feel? Are you afraid to dream big? Why? Are you afraid that you might not be able to carry it off? The little group in Kanata Baptist didn't believe in elbow grease and self-reliance. They relied on God to help them, though they supplied no shortage of sweat equity and labors of love.

Let yourself dream. Expand your vision. See yourself serving others and loving every minute. What do you see?