It All Depends on Your Personality Type?
A recent article in the New York Times entitled: “To Reduce Travel Stress, Plan Less.” An article with travel tips on how not planning a vacation may mean less stress while on holiday.
My phone lit up as my “SJ” traveling friends were like, OH HELL NO~ this would totally stress me out!
The Sensing Judging (SJ’s) Type Combo
A large percent of the population may disagree with the New York Times. According to www.personalitymax.com, SJ types make up 40% of the population, while David Keirsey states SJ’s make up 45% of the population. Keirsey calls SJ types Guardians.
SJ travel personalities need organization and structure, and they’re practical and realistic. If SJ’s decide to change places every two or three days, the task will be planned in advance and highly organized. Not sure if SJ types are up for this type of travel, they are not known to love NEW situations.
A few traits of an SJ type:
- A clear cut pattern of action
- Careful
- Conservative (This doesn’t necessarily mean politically.)
- Detailed
- Factual
- Practical
- Hard-working
- Orderly
- Patient
- Practical
- Routinized
- Sensible
- Stable
- Thorough
- Unimpulsive
- Undistractable
Does this sound like somebody who doesn’t want to plan? Does the idea of less planning equal less stress for this type hold true? I’d wager the answer would be NO!
Does Planning Reduce Vacation Stress?
The question, does vacation planning reduce stress? I say it’s about who you’re traveling with. For some YES, for others HELL NO! I’m not saying the author of this article is wrong for having an opinion. I want to offer that SJ travel personalities who read the New York Times article will probably disagree with this theory, which is FINE. We are all different, and disagreeing is good because it tells me you know what you want and don’t want.
Looking at Temperaments
Back to Keirsey, when we look at temperaments, we see how different people gather information. A sensor (S) will see a grain of sand while an intuitive (iN) will see a never-ending beach, an organic whole of beaches that connect from around the world. YEAH, that’s a big difference.
And what’s even crazier, we all think our way of thinking is correct. Add in past experiences, childhood crap, society conditioning, and now online influences, and we have ourselves a wonderful, complex tapestry of unique humans.
More Details:
Are you a Sensor (S) or an Intuitive (iN)? These are the two functions that help us gather information.
Sensors: If you have a sensing trait, you gather information in a concrete and tactile way.
Intuitives (iN): As an intuitive, you gather information abstractly and conceptually.
What do you do with the incoming data? Do you organize as a judger (J) does? OR
Do you keep on seeking more like a perceiver (P) does?
Does Not Planning a Vacation Reduce Stress? For some, the answer is YES.
A window of understanding of these two fundamental human functions is SO RELATABLE to travel. People with extroverted sensing or extroverted intuition are probably OK without a plan. These traits tell me so.
A Glimpse Into the World of an iN
According to Myers-Briggs®, 50.7% of the U.S. population are N types vs. S types, who make up 73.3% of the U.S. population. A glimpse into the world of an iN
- Tend to think of several things at once (Looking forward to the new experiences on the horizon.)
- Futuristic (Waiting to get to the new location – yeah that’s why planning for them is sometimes irrelevant.)
- Repetitive behavior is BORING (They can’t wait for the next part of the trip to start. Their thinking, I don’t want to go back to the pool, day-in, and day-out?)
They naturally find the idea of not planning to be a GOOD thing! Less planning less stress is relative to this type. It’s because highly organized and strictly scheduled trips go against their personality type. These behaviors typically cause stress for iN types.
What’s Your Travel Personality: Let Your Inner Guide Be Your Travel Guide©
I love articles like this as it gets me excited to share what I’ve developed around travel personalities.
As the article states, we spend a lot of time, money and effort planning the perfect vacay, only to arrive and find we aren’t VIBING with the destination. It’s because our personality is clashing with the character of the place.
(When I went to Vegas for the first time, I was a wreck until I headed over to the Grand Canyon, yeah, I wasn’t vibing with Vegas.) 🤪 When you pick a place that vibes with you, you breathe deeper and flow with the destination vs. struggling and stressing.
My Hope for Modern Day Travel
Co-creating from my soul self intends to help you experience heart-centered, spirited, and joy-filled vacations. Knowing your travel personality is a novel approach to travel. It provides new ways to travel deeper to enjoy the magic of each experience as it unfolds. Understanding your travel personality not only allows you to see yourself in different ways, but it also allows you to see your travel companions in new ways too.
This revolutionary travel approach unveils YOUR needs, desires, and wants based on YOUR unique travel personality type. This style of travel reveals your inner travel map that lies just beneath the surface. You need to turn on your soul’s internal travel GPS before you begin a Google search.
What’s Your Travel Personality©?
If you haven’t had a chance, listen to my radio interview What’s Your Travel Personality; Let Your Inner Guide Be Your Travel Guide. Here’s a direct link to the podcast. The interview aired on Speaking of Travel archived on iHeart Radio with host Marilyn Ball.
Thank you, Marilyn, for believing in me, even when I didn’t
Happy Soulful Sojourns to all!
Photo credit: Pixabay/erikawittlieb