Two Approaches to Life : Why We do What We do, by Will and Jeremy

Will here:

When I think about the way I approach life, my mind goes in two directions: the way I was raised, and my personality. (The whole nature vs. nurture debate that my undergraduate supporting area in Psychology has made me an expert on). My upbringing taught me hard work and responsibility. My parents both work full time jobs, and then they come home from work and do more work on the house or in the yard. On holidays where they didn't have to go to work, they took the opportunity of a full day to get things done around the house. It gave me this mindset of responsibility; there is always something to do, so make sure you are always doing something productive.

Then you look at the other side of the spectrum, my personality. As an Type 1 with a strong Type 2 Enneagram, "I must be orderly/planned to survive", and "I must be helpful and caring to survive". I'm a planner, I like a schedule, and I'm not a huge fan of spontaneous changes. My INTJ personality strengthens this, it "indicates a person who is energized by time alone (Introverted), who focuses on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), who makes decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking) and who prefers to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging)." I like my time alone, and so it’s easy for me to withdraw, and stay quiet, keeping thoughts and opinions to myself. I tend to more about the big picture and focus on longer term plans, and I with this I see the world very black and white. The whole time focusing on the plan.

The combination of being raised and nurtured by hardworking, responsible parents, and being a more reserved, big picture planner by nature, has led me to limit my risks, and play it safe for the sake of the future.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!


Jeremy speaking:

It has been interesting watching the difference between Will and me over the past 8 years as we lived our lives. Those differences have been increasingly apparent as we have gotten older. I have always lived with a very short-term plan, which functioned more like ideas about what I might do from any given year. I never had a 5 year plan or any long-term plan. Life seemed to change so rapidly for me from year to year through high school and college that it seemed so difficult to develop any long-term idea of what I may want to do. Because of my church background it was more natural for me to leave the big details to God and allow Him to do what He wanted. My personality tends to fit that way as an INFP. I have an idealized view of the world and I do like to see the big picture. I do not exactly live as an organized, detail-oriented person, preferring the flexibility and spontaneity of life. While I learned the value of hard work and seeing projects through, a result of being raised on a farm, you would think planning for the future would be natural. However, the thing with farming is you can never plan for everything. Each year has it’s sort of unforeseen circumstances as weather is unpredictable, tractors break, animals get diseases. You can prepare as much as you want and things will still happen you could not have expected. You learn how to adapt and adjust to life’s curve balls. Because of that, I have learned to live more adaptable and with less of a plan because any plan can so easily be completely disrupted.