Born Organized?
In response to my last entry, Cathy of Langley BC posted the comment, "I just wanted to find out from you if you were organized from the beginning? Do you believe that some people are just born organized?" Those are such great questions that I thought the answers merited their own entry.
In response to whether I have always been organized, I’ll start with the long answer, by sharing an excerpt from a speech my sister made at a recent party in honour of my 50th birthday. Kathy said:
After working as a secretary and a career counsellor, she became what our dad would say she was destined to become. A professional organizer. Why would he say this was her destiny?
Well, how many children do you know who carefully arrange their green beans in tidy rows - on their high-chair trays - before eating them, and who, years after they’ve grown to maturity, still line up french fries on their plates, in order from shortest to longest? Perhaps I exaggerate. But our dad did ask Janet recently, "Have you ever enjoyed a hot meal?"
I wasn’t aware of this tendency until I was in my 20’s, but this was still long before I considered organizing as a career. I do remember visiting a friend in her university dorm room, and she had all her shelves labelled as to what belonged on each shelf, and I thought that was pretty neat (no pun intended). In the 1980’s I bought Bonnie McCullough’s book, Totally Organized and found it very helpful for getting my house in order, and when I went to re-read it some time later, I was pleasantly surprised to realize I had already incorporated most of the ideas into my life. I continued to read and enjoy organizing books for several years after that.
While working as a career counsellor, I learned about personality type and discovered that I am a "Judging" type. In True Colors or Personality Dimensions, I’m considered a "Gold." What this basically means is that I was born organized, and I prefer things to be orderly and scheduled. (For a more detailed explanation, I suggest you read my article, What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®?)
My short answer would therefore be "yes" some people are born organized, and I am one of those people.
However, this does not mean that if you’re not born organized that you can’t acquire the skills. In fact, in POC we talk about "born organizers" and "born again organizers." A "born again organizer" is someone who has learned to become organized and now helps others to do the same.
I have had the pleasure of working with Linda Elliott, who lived with chronic disorganization as a result of multiple sclerosis, and she used her experience to assist others in similar situations. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to continue with her business as her MS symptoms worsened, but she was a shining example of how someone who wasn’t born organized can become a professional organizer.
