Your question: I've been reading your blog for over two years now, and you rarely write about yourself. So could you describe your personality?
My answer: I would say that I'm a peaceful phlegmatic with a touch of melancholy. I say peaceful phlegmatic because I'm very laid back, dress lightly, and am easy to get along with. I say melancholy because I'm an artist and I'm always thinking. Plus when I took the Personality Plus test these were my two leading personality types: Peaceful Phlegmatic and Melancholy.
By melancholy I don't mean depressed either. Florence Litnaur, who wrote the above named book, notes that most of your creative people are melancholies. So I'd have to say that considering I'm a writer, and a thinker, I'm therefore a melancholy by her definition.
Mostly, though, I'm phlegmatic. I generally have a spirit of equanimity about me. That means I'm calm even in the most stressful situations. Sometimes people ask me how I can stay so calm in the face of adversity. The answer, generally, that I give is that I think I know what I'm doing. I also know that when I'm stressed I don't think well, so it makes more sense to stay calm.
I actually was written up once for being too relaxed at a code. In response to the write up I wrote: "What do you want, for me to run to the code and arrive with a heart rate of 133 and my hair askew?" Yes, I also have a dry sense of humor tantamount to what I write on this blog. I'm simple too. I'm a very simple person. I'm pithy, like my writing.
2 comments:
Rick,
I had the same experience of criticism for "lacking a sense of urgency" in code situations. But when one observes the most effective physicians, they usually have the same calm demeanor. It seems to be the RT and nursing staff that feels that one must behave like the actors in a TV hospital show. I once worked with a director of Emergency Transport and he used the term "listening to the music" to describe the behavior of wanting to look like a hero with the dramatic music playing. I feel that those that don't "listen to the music" are more effective practitioners and less likely to make errors or suffer stress related symptoms.
I love the way you word this... and more likely to make the patient feel better and get better. People that "react" to emotion tend to panic...
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