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7 Signs You Are A Creative Destruction Kind Of Person And How To Excel If You Are

Chaos is in my nature.  I thrive when creating, and suffer when maintaining.  I feel passion when building something and “stuck” when forced to focus on the details.

Does that sound familiar, or overwhelming?  Does it sound exciting to throw caution to the wind and dive right into something, or does it sound scary?

In my last article, I gave a very broad overview of the two basic natures of people, chaotic and orderly.  I mentioned, briefly, that I am of a chaotic nature (more so, in fact than virtually anyone I’ve ever met).  Ironically, I am also very good at spotting the order in what seems chaos to others (something sometimes referred to as pattern recognition).

Below I’ll list seven of the major attributes of someone for whom creative destruction is the spice of life, and then a few things that don’t come easily, but pay back the extra effort they require many times over.

1. You feel alive when creating something new.

   Crafting something builds your energy, leaving you satisfied and stronger, while assembling things leaves you empty and drained.

2. You see the whole more than the parts.

   In the kitchen, you make a meal, not a recipe… in writing, you see the world, not its mechanics… in business you see how the whole is different than the sum of its parts.

3. You love creating plans, but have trouble following them.

   Creating plans is fun, just like creating nearly anything usually is for you… when you are creating, you easily open up and pour your energy into things.  When it comes to following the plan you have created, you start having to pay attention to details, and the fun goes away… and with it goes the energy.

4. You generally have little attachment to things.

   Things are a part of the details, and therefore not something to which you become attached… the same often holds true for the majority of people that you meet.

5. You are easily frustrated when details keep you from advancing the big picture.

   This one really rears up and bites me every now and again… when you get stuck on what seems like a minor (but necessary) detail, and it keeps you from making any major progress on the big picture, the frustration can build up to an extreme level very quickly.

6. You excel when given a free hand, but perform average at best when forced into a box.

   When you have something to do, and the freedom to do it your way, you tend to excel, because it draws forth your energy as you create a solution.  When you have something to do and have a prescribed way that you must do it, especially if you see a way that seems better, you resent it, and do not give it your energy.

7. You are frustrated by working with people who must follow step by step plans.

   Sometimes life works better when you follow Nike’s advice and Just Do It.  Some people, however, can’t operate that way… they need step by step guidance for everything.  Of course, sometimes their way works out best, too.

There are, of course, degrees of alignment with either nature.  Some people are extremely chaotic, while some are just mildly chaotic, and the same goes, of course, for those of a more orderly persuasion.  The degree to which the points listed above apply reflects that level of alignment.

If you don’t recognize yourself in the points above, you almost certainly can name someone who does fit them right off the top of your head.  While everyone leans one way or the other in their nature, the ones who lean the farthest tend to be more memorable.

That’s the first half… knowing that you are chaotic.  The second half is knowing how to use your strengths to cover your weaknesses.  Here comes your second list:

1. Find something you can do with passion to keep you going after the initial investment.

   As mentioned above, when you create something, it’s easy for you to invest a lot of energy into it.  When it changes from creation to maintenance, though, it becomes much harder to invest your energy.  The counter to this is finding something that you are passionate about, so that your passion can keep you going between your bouts of creation.

2. Create smaller, short-term plans so that you can accomplish them before you run out of energy.

   One of the best ways to keep going when you have a chaotic nature is to keep things in the creation mode as much as you can by creating short-term plans more than long-range ones.  Create a plan for what to do today, rather than what to do for the month.
   If you must create long-term goals, then break them down as soon as you can and forget about the long-term goal except for when you accomplish the shorter goals and need to see what the next short-term goal is.

3. Learn to shift exactly how big the big picture is.

   Because we tend to see things in terms of the big picture, little details can become frustrating all out of proportion.  One solution for this is to shift how big the big picture is… if you’re building a house, and the detail is an electrical problem, shift the big picture down to the electrical system of the house.  This will make the detail not seem like it’s so disproportionately small, and can also make it feel like it’s the last detail, which can relieve a lot of the stress.

4. Create systems to help you with things where you know your nature is hurting you.

   This is one area where I can definitely do better… the most obvious example for me is networking (and not in the computer sense).  It is not natural to me to build and maintain network connections, but it’s clear that they make it far easier to succeed in whatever it is that you do.  It is natural, however, for me to take a problem and build a system to solve it.  I just need to apply that here.  The same goes for other things where your nature works against you, like if you are absent-minded and forget what needs to get done, or what was highest priority… create a system to solve the problems your nature causes.

5. Find partners (whether in business or personal) who are more orderly than you, but understand your nature.

   This is a big one, but has a catch, too… you need someone more orderly than you, but if you are at the extreme of chaos, you don’t want someone from the extreme of order.  You’ll end up having so much trouble seeing things from each other’s view that you’ll have serious problems communicating properly and working together.
   Someone who is a little more orderly than you, though, can be a great complement, with their strengths supporting you where you are weak, and vice versa.  This is how it is with my wife and I, and it works out amazingly well for us.

Understanding who you are, what your nature is, and how to use that is an almost overwhelming advantage, as the vast majority of people never learn.  If you can understand the nature of others and therefore how to best let them use their own nature, you’ll can, and almost certainly will, find success in both business and personal life.

Next article… signs and tips for the more orderly among us.

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December 29, 2009   Posted in: Awareness, Energy

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