I’m a very conscientious person. I want to do the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right attitude. This is why I am flooded with guilt every time I see a police car. It’s not that I’ve done anything wrong, it’s just that I can’t be sure I’ve done everything right either.
Apart from experiencing waves of guilt around the coppers, I’m rather glad I’m a conscientious type. It’s the reason why I’m such an organised, efficient sort of person, even though my brain is actually hard-wired to be messy and unhinged. It’s the reason why I think I have to be useful all the time, when really I’m so much happier when I’m not.
Contentiousness (and cousins earnestness and enthusiasm) overrides many great flaws. For example, if you asked anyone I know whether they thought I was a lazy person or not, they would all say, “Bron? Absolutely not!”
Well, I’m actually the laziest on the planet (except maybe this guy).
If I had my way, I’d take to my bed and read books all day. Maybe I wouldn’t even read books. I think I’d just lie there, happy in the knowledge that I am fulfilling my life’s destiny. A bedpan would be nice.
Despite every single morning beginning with me contemplating the likelihood of me getting away with the above, lucky for me (and whoever is charged with emptying my bedpan), conscientiousness won’t actually let me stay there. I have to get up and go, go, go. I spend my days keeping as busy as possible just so no one finds out that I’d rather be lying on a couch, any couch.
It doesn’t stop with myself, either. When you’re a hyper-conscientious type, you tend to be conscientious enough for everyone. They love it when you solve their problem before they’ve even figured out they had a problem. They don’t love it when you’re noticing things that they’d rather you didn’t notice. Conscientious people are always noticing things.
It’s no surprise really that every time I go to type conscientious, my brain wants to type contentious. Same, same a lot of the time. It’s just par for the course when you’re trying to think for the world. Especially when you’d really rather just be in bed.
Are you a conscientious type like me?
Bec Bowyer says
Yes! I think part of the reason I’d like to just stay in bed all day with a book is so that I can STOP noticing everything all the time. Sometimes it’s nice to switch it all off and inhabit someone else’s mental world. I’m sure that’s why I love escaping into fiction.
Maxabella says
Yes, this. It would just be nice to get out of my own head for a spell.
Erin says
Proposing that your hyper-conscientiousness isn’t the only reason you don’t laze around in bed all day even though you want to, I’d add that your parents installed solid healthy habits in preventing you from doing so. Just to beat my well beaten drum on habits and the importance and role we as parents have 😉
Maxabella says
Good point (and one my mum will appreciate). But, in a way, habits are merely conscientiousness at its most disciplined…
Simone says
I think we might be twins. x
Maxabella says
You know it’s true,
Sarah @sarahdipity says
Nodding my head so much that it might just drop off!
Maxabella says
I love that there are so many who can relate and yet there I was thinking I was telling a big secret. I love blogging!!!
Terri Hart says
An interesting idea. I do dream of moments when I can sit, alone, uninterrupted and read a good book. I actually carve out certain moments when I can do that (like while I am sitting in my car waiting to pick up kids). I also have “scheduled” a “TV time” with my husband every night after our daughter goes to bed, where we watch one TV show together (We don’t do TV too much as a rule) but I am usually asleep before it’s over (such an exciting date I must be!). But other than that I’m busy busy busy. Sometimes I’m even productive. And yes, I am a “noticer”, too, much to the chagrin of my daughter, and my employees… 🙂
Maxabella says
I think it’s cute that you have a TV date each night. I hang out with my fella as much as I can too. He’s my jam. x
Lisa says
Yep! I do this all the time. On a side note, this is why I like gift giving.. Because I notice things about a person and put it away in my mind vault for the next time I may need to get someone a present.Then they love the gift you gave them, simply because you paid attention to them.
One of my friends rented a hotel room for her birthday and spent the weekend by herself, reading,eating the room service menu, watching movies and lots of chilling out – NO KIDS or HUSBAND. I am a tad jealous about her solo adventure.
Maxabella says
I do that too! I love a thoughtful gift and it’s so easy to pick upon the cues.
Your friend is so lucky. We should all aspire to a night like that every now and then. x