What's your birth order?

So in my last post I talked about my ability to delay the completion of projects. I went to a seminar by Dr Kevin Leman at my church last night. He's the author of a lot of books but the one he talked about last night is the Birth Order Book. Its a fabulous book that talks about how the order in which you were born in your family affects the way you live your life. It also helps you to see how your spouse's birth order affects your marriage, as well as give you insight on how to parent your children the best you can within their birth order.

Figuring out your birth order is not as easy as it seems. For instance, in your family if there is more than 5 years distance between siblings, according to Leman's theory, that starts a new "family". For instance, I am the baby of my family, however, there is 6 years between me and my older sister. To add another aspect, there are also no other children after me. (my parents stopped when they got their perfect child ;-) So according to Leman's theory, I am the baby of the family, but I also have qualities of an only child (which he calls super first borns) This totally made sense to me after reading his book.

For instance, I got away with murder in my family b/c I was the baby. I have some of the quirks of the baby such as acting impulsively sometimes, and having a lack of order in some things. However, b/c of my only child aspect, I have qualities like, perfectionism, feeling like my ideas are always the best ones (that's because they are), but anyway, and being able to go after something and fully execute. I'm also very structured in my life, and a list maker.

Some of you who know me well are like, did she say perfectionism? No way she has that quality. (look at all my unfinished projects or the projects i never start)That's because I get frozen with my perfectionistic attitude that tells me it has to be perfect or I'm not doing it.

The goal for me has to be to allow these two birth orders to merge peacefully. So once my baby self gets me into a project, let my only child self complete the project despite the fact that it will not be perfect. Its never gonna be perfect so stop shooting for it. That makes me feel better. Gonna go finish getting the wallpaper down in the bathroom now.

So what does your birth order say about you?