Have you ever wondered why some people seem to break out of the norm to create the life they dream of and some don’t?
During World War II Katherine Briggs and Isobel Myers developed a personality test to work out which types of jobs women would be most “comfortable and effective” doing whilst the men were off fighting. There were a number of different personality traits that they used from previous research by psychologist Carl Jung but during their research they developed an additional trait – judger/perceiver.
According to the ladies a perceiver adapts to the world around them whereas a judger adapts their environment to suit themselves.
Does this explain why some women after becoming mums will accept low paid, part-time, temporary work whilst others will either develop new businesses or push for flexible hours?
A woman with ‘perceiver’ traits will adapt themselves to the environment by changing what they do, often making big sacrifices in the process. A judger will try and change their working environment to suit their new circumstances perhaps going freelance or starting a new business.
Is it so unreasonable to be unreasonable?
“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people” George Bernard Shaw
Maybe the time has come for more of us to be a little more unreasonable and pursue avenues that adjust the environment to suit our own happiness. Often times we see personal sacrifice as a virtue, always saying yes to this commitment and that but is all this sacrifice getting us any closer to our dreams?
I don’t have all the answers but what I do know is that if we all looked at our environments and wondered what could be changed before automatically looking inward to how we could sacrifice, more progress would be made.
Women will be having children until the end of time, if our generation accepts low paid, temporary, part-time work as acceptable for mothers then effectively we’re saying that it’s ok for our daughters to be subjected to the same thing.
Is it time to trade ‘having it all’ to ‘having a bit more of our own way please’. Our own way being fair opportunities post children, more flexible work, more acceptance and support for fathers doing their fair share.
If Mr Shaw is right and it’s unreasonable people that create progress, then perhaps it’s about time we started being a bit more unreasonable!
(Source: Neuro-linguistic Programming for Dummies)
This is a guest post by Erica Douglas. Erica is…
-Author of The Mum Blogger eCourse and A Guide to Successful Blogging
-Cision Top Ten Parenting Blogger at www.littlemummy.com
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Tiger photo (this is one mum I wouldn’t argue with!) credit: CherryFreshPhotography