vs. Events, Goals vs. Journeys

Though it may seem so, this is not a VALUE judgment; rather it is an explanation of two sets of personality characteristics:

Idea oriented – a person or persons who think in terms of concepts the relationships between these concepts. They also relate events to a cause, idea, or reason, be it feelings, actions, depictions, purpose, or activity that leads to the conceptualization or building of concepts. This prospective comes naturally to a cerebral thinker and all humans are capable of it. The down side is that most who have this prospective are not in the mainstream of society. They have significant difficulties in relating to others and do not do well with small-talk.

Event oriented – a common practice of relating, viewing, feeling, perceiving, and describing life. It requires a good short term memory for all of the little details, without which, will cause an inaccurate pretrial of the event. Events, the most popular being sporting events. Events can also include family, friends, acquaintances, celebrities, politics, travel, the legal system, and a job or vocation. The down side of one who is oriented towards or obsessed with events is they tend not to ascertain the reasons for events and also tend to hide themselves or their feelings behind the articulation of the events, i.e. small talk.

The level of IQ is not a determining factor as to which way a person is oriented. In fact there are those who are said to be very intelligent, who are not idea oriented, and vise versa.

Goal Oriented - A common facet of society that states a person's propensity to seek the light at the end of the tunnel, the winning home run, the bottom line, the achievement, the completed job, and the highs of victory. These people tend to only care how they got there and to only improve themselves for the next destination.

Journey Oriented - A person who lives from day to day enjoying the essence of the moment. It is the artist who paints, the engineer who desires to constantly improve their invention, the cabinet maker who loves wood in all stages of construction, and the discoverer who quests for. These people tend to be during the trip and do not revel at the ending, or sometimes doesn't even get to an end.

So what am I? I am an idea-oriented person who thrives on the journey. This is probably why I tend to relish deep conversations while sipping a glass of fine Chardonnay with close friends. How’s that for a value judgment…

E 1999