Understanding What Makes You Tick

By Laura J. Bagby
CBN.com Sr. Producer

CBN.com – Ever wondered how you can better relate to a spouse, a coworker, a teacher, a child, and/or a friend? And ever wondered how you can, in turn, help others see things from your perspective?

All you need to do is understand four terms – sanguine, choleric, melancholy, and phlegmatic. If it sounds like Greek to you, that’s OK. It is! Greek physician Galen coined these words around A.D. 190, based on the philosophy of Greek thinker Hippocrates.

Today, we still use these terms to describe the basic personality types. As a quick look, the sanguine is fun-loving, talkative, and outgoing; the choleric is driven to lead and achieve; the melancholy is deep, neat, and organized; and the phlegmatic is relaxed and easygoing.

But that’s just a simplistic overview. If you really want to understand how to accept yourself and relate to those who are different from you, then you need to dig deeper. And who better to point the way than someone who has 30 years of extensive research and personal experience writing and speaking about just this topic?

Enter author and speaker Marita Littauer, who along with insights from her seasoned author and speaker mother, Florence Littauer, has amassed everything you wanted to know about the temperaments into one all-encompassing package called Wired That Way. It includes a book, plus a companion ten-lesson workbook and DVD for group study. And inside the book is a temperament test, so you can decipher quickly how God made you.

Written in an approachable, easy to understand manner, this book depicts the strengths and weaknesses, emotional needs, communication styles, parenting styles, marital patterns, workplace roles, and spiritual gifts of each personality.

And if you are worried about putting yourself or someone else into some narrowly defined constrictive category, don’t be. “God was far more creative when He made us than to put us into one box,” says Marita.

Knowing who we are is important, but it is only half the battle. Our goal in learning about the personalities should ultimately include becoming more like Christ.

As Marita explains, “Taking the personality profile is like the ‘you are here’ button on the directory at the mall. As Christians, our natural, raw personality is where we are. Where we want to be is like Christ, which is the strength of all four and the weaknesses of none. So, when you see where you are, you then can make the personality plan to figure out how you are going to get from where you are to where you want to be.”

This year, why not give the gift of understanding? Check out Wired That Way. Make it a companion to your collection.