The personality type that is
more prone to cardiac disease than any other has been called
the 'Type-A' personality. These people are always in a
hurry, always worried about success, competition, time, and
order. Type-A's have no time in their lives for anything
but work because they define themselves by their work.
The more work they do, the stronger identity they feel.
Type-A's achieve their minor
work successes and their major health and social failures by
ignoring any aspects of their lives that do not directly
contribute to their work. All of us can fall into Type-A
behavior at times. Some of us live there all of the
time.
The key to controlling
Type-A behavior is to cultivate other aspects of your
life. Take up a musical instrument, learn to pain,
study a language, plant a garden, read books out of your
field. Be sure to take vacations, not just from your
workplace but take vacations from your worry about getting
things done.
The most creative and
successful people are not Type-A's anyway. Why kill
yourself for a false productivity when creativity is just a
matter of learning to slow yourself down?
