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From Type A to Type Me: How to Stop "Doing" Life and Start Living It
We all know people who seem to have it all together; they come across as confident, accomplished, and successful to the outside world, and leave their friends to wonder, “How does she do it all?” Fast-paced, deadline-driven, and outcome-focused American life and work culture has bred Type-A personality behaviors, such as ambition, multitasking, and perfectionism. Unfortunately, Americans also have extremely high rates of depression and heart disease, which are often caused by common Type-A stressors and pressures to “have it all” and “be it all.” From Type A to Type Me is a wakeup call for anyone with Type-A traits who is trapped by their negative side effects. Using new techniques with ancient wisdom, this book provides a down-to-earth, applicable roadmap for harnessing the values of the Type-A tendencies while releasing the rigid side effects that too often take over.
- GenresSelf HelpNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 2014
9 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Heisler
2 books6 followersMelissa Heisler is a recovering Type A. After ten years managing and directing theatrical productions and seventeen years in corporate marketing, the stress of high-pressure, deadline-driven jobs led to her own ill health, mentally and physically. This started her search for a long-lasting means of approaching each situation with ease, contentment, and power. She developed her system for managing stress and has been leading a more peaceful life ever since. In her coaching, Melissa uses this system again and again to guide professionals to live better. She has a master’s degree in integrated marketing communication.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2015
There are people who can't sit still, are compulsive cleaners, dusting continuously and you wonder what makes these people "tick"? Well, do not worry dear reader, help is on the way!! Melissa Heisler has taken the mystique out of trying to understand these strange behaviors in her book, "From Type A to Type Me: How to Stop "Doing" Life and Start Living It". Not only that, but Melissa provides a format to help Type A people address these behaviors in a way that is guaranteed to help them function better in the business world, without crashing, physically and emotionally.
May 11, 2019
This is a self help book that will appeal to a very specific group of people with a Type A personality that are realizing or experiencing the limitations of their personal trades and that want to do something about it. The writer does an excellent job explaining her personal type-a personality and how she 'ticks'. Many people with similar trades will identify with this, I know did. And while thats good fun every now and then, there are also a number of painful realizations in here. And then she goes on to outline her journey to turn these limitations around.
She describes how her type-A personality affected her environment both personal and professional and most importantly herself. She became lost, stuck, unhappy and in a constant day to day battle with the world and herself and it wore her out and it affected her mentally and physically. She then presents a number of very helpful practical exercises, routines, viewpoints and alternatives to handle situations and most importantly to change your thinking process. She also shares examples of other type-a personalities that she now coaches to articulate situations and solutions. All the examples serve to make you understand and internalize how to handle your type-A and turn it into a Type Me.
The Type-Me is the self-improved version of you in control of your personal Type-A personality but in a happy and comfortable way. she gives you tools to re-write your own thought process and how you perceive situations and others in way where you can accept the situation and deal with it without blowing a fuse every time, actually quite the opposite. her methodology also isn't about changing you, or forcing yourself into something else. It's about understanding your personality and how it affects you, other and your environment and the options you have to change that. I found it an interesting read on how to deal with yourself as a type-a and the world and I certainly took a lot of learning from it.
This book could also be helpful to people living with type-a partners of friends and want to understand them and their thinking process better. This book will help you 'get' them.
As a side note: Both in the review and in the book she discussed the Peru visit to a shaman but this book is not at all about alternative healing (I was quite hesitant about that part when I picked up this book) but she rather very openly describes this part of her journey as she looked for a cure, and this is just one of the things she tried.
She describes how her type-A personality affected her environment both personal and professional and most importantly herself. She became lost, stuck, unhappy and in a constant day to day battle with the world and herself and it wore her out and it affected her mentally and physically. She then presents a number of very helpful practical exercises, routines, viewpoints and alternatives to handle situations and most importantly to change your thinking process. She also shares examples of other type-a personalities that she now coaches to articulate situations and solutions. All the examples serve to make you understand and internalize how to handle your type-A and turn it into a Type Me.
The Type-Me is the self-improved version of you in control of your personal Type-A personality but in a happy and comfortable way. she gives you tools to re-write your own thought process and how you perceive situations and others in way where you can accept the situation and deal with it without blowing a fuse every time, actually quite the opposite. her methodology also isn't about changing you, or forcing yourself into something else. It's about understanding your personality and how it affects you, other and your environment and the options you have to change that. I found it an interesting read on how to deal with yourself as a type-a and the world and I certainly took a lot of learning from it.
This book could also be helpful to people living with type-a partners of friends and want to understand them and their thinking process better. This book will help you 'get' them.
As a side note: Both in the review and in the book she discussed the Peru visit to a shaman but this book is not at all about alternative healing (I was quite hesitant about that part when I picked up this book) but she rather very openly describes this part of her journey as she looked for a cure, and this is just one of the things she tried.
October 17, 2022
Best book on mindfulness
I have read several books on Buddhism, mindfulness and others. And I did not expect to find such a well written piece that explains it in a way that is so intuitive to me. As a type A, a lot of things she wrote resonate with me, and I feel that she provided clear ways to achieve the “state of grey” or mindfulness, and really living in and enjoying the present. Most useful book I read in the year.
I have read several books on Buddhism, mindfulness and others. And I did not expect to find such a well written piece that explains it in a way that is so intuitive to me. As a type A, a lot of things she wrote resonate with me, and I feel that she provided clear ways to achieve the “state of grey” or mindfulness, and really living in and enjoying the present. Most useful book I read in the year.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews