Lion, Golden Retriever, Otter or Beaver…. or Giraffe?

Have you ever taken a personality assessment?  There are many out there, one I like is from Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent where they use animals to capture 4 personality types:  Golden Retriever, Lion, Otter, and Beaver.

Your challenge:  which of these mostly closely represents your personality and what are the positives and negatives of being this animal in living your best life?

The Smalley - Trent assessment uses Dominance as Lion, Influence as Otter, Steadiness as Golden Retriever, and Compliance as Beaver. See if you see yourself and your loved ones in this table?

https://weirdblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/personality-types-lion-beaver-otter-and-golden-retriever/

 Looking at these personality types has been very insightful for me.  I would say I was a Golden Retriever in my early early years – easy-going, dependable, quiet, and humorous.  I had a child-like and innocent zeal to perform and please.   I transitioned into a Beaver in my early teen years – curious if it was natural maturing OR the result of the “grow up” prompts.   The Beaver captures the engineer in me – analytical, organized, industrious; however, the weaknesses are very painfully true.  I can certainly be moody, self-centered, touchy, and unsociable.  I have spent a lot of time and energy countering these weaknesses as I’ve dealt with my undiagnosed depression.

I like the term that Smalley/Trent use for the Beaver – melancholy.  Oxford dictionary defines melancholy as a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.  Its freaky how it captures my lifelong mental battle.

I found Lincoln's Great Depression by Joshua Wolf Shenk in The Atlantic very helpful in understanding melancholy. Mr. Shenk states:

…a person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with an awful burden—but also, in Lord Byron's phrase, with a "fearful gift." The burden was a sadness and despair that could tip into a state of disease. But the gift was a capacity for depth and wisdom. Mr. Shenk said about Abraham Lincoln, “…Lincoln didn't do great work because he solved the problem of his melancholy; the problem of his melancholy was all the more fuel for the fire of his great work. “ I am committed to continually dealing with my melancholy and using it as fuel to do “great work.”

With no disrespect to Drs. Smalley and Trent, I added a new category that also addresses me – The Ruminator.   Thefreedictionary.com defines ruminator as:

Noun. 1. ruminator - a reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation. muser, ponderer, muller. thinker - someone who exercises the mind (usually in an effort to reach a decision)

I will add the ruminator to MY personality chart –

As I deal with my melancholy, my depression, I need to make sure to employ the strengths of the ruminator and AVOID falling prey to the weaknesses!

What is your personality trait – both strengths and weaknesses?  How will you use your personality to live the life you are called to live?