Advice from one Type A to another

For most of my life, I didn’t even know what a “Type A personality” was. I wasn’t walking around calling myself high-functioning, intense, or ambitious. I was just... being me. Focused. Fast-moving. Always chasing something meaningful, urgent, or both.

The first time I heard the term was from a manager who, in a moment of both observation and concern, said, “This is you being a typical Type A.” I googled it that evening—and sat in stunned silence. Not because I felt seen, but because I felt exposed.

Every description felt uncomfortably familiar. And for the first time, I didn’t wear it like a badge. I held it up like a mirror.

Over the years, as I dove deeper into inner work, I began to see Type A not just as a psychological label, but as a spiritual imbalance. Not something to fix, but something to understand.

Let me walk you through what I’ve learned.

Symptoms of a Type A Personality

(As Understood Through Eknath Easwaran’s Lens)

1. Drive and Determination
Type A personalities are relentless. We don’t just have goals, we live inside them. Easwaran admired strong will, but he cautioned that when this will is directed only outward, we risk overreaching without peace.

2. Competitive Orientation
We’re often driven by comparison - subtly or openly. There's always a benchmark, a race, a higher bar. This creates urgency, but also fuels restlessness. Easwaran reminds us that fulfillment comes not from outperforming others, but from understanding ourselves.

3. Impatience and a Hurried Mind
We don't slow down. We live in fast-forward. Our mind is always leaping to the next task, the next win. Slowing down feels like a waste - until we burn out. Easwaran calls this the disease of hurry, and offers mindful slowing down as the medicine.

4. High Susceptibility to Stress
We push through tension like it’s normal. Deadlines, pressure, responsibility—they energize us, until they drain us. Easwaran says stress is the result of too many competing desires and not enough inner anchoring. We become “externally focused and internally empty.”

5. Dominance of Self-Will and Ego
Our inner narrative is often "I have to do it. I must win. I can't stop now." That self-will becomes overpowering. Easwaran warns that when ego drives our decisions, we may succeed on the outside but suffer silently inside.

6. Fragmented Energy
Perhaps the most dangerous part. We try to be everything to everyone. Our energy is scattered—split across 100 priorities. Easwaran calls this fragmentation of prana. You achieve, but don’t feel whole. You finish, but don’t feel fulfilled.

What Now?

I’m not here to tell you to stop being Type A. I couldn’t even if I tried. That intensity? It’s part of us. But awareness is everything. And without it, we burn fast and fade faster.

So here’s what I’ve learned about staying Type A—but doing it with health, peace, and clarity.

What to Start Doing

1. Focus your energy.
Pick 1–2 things that matter. Let go of the rest. Unify your desires and your energy follows. Peace isn't found in doing more—it's in doing what truly matters.

2. Direct your willpower inward.
Use your discipline not just for tasks, but for taming the mind. Say no. Sit still. Meditate. Breathe before reacting. That’s the real workout.

3. Practice stillness every day.
Five minutes. Ten. It doesn’t matter. Just stop. Step out of motion and into presence. Let your nervous system know you’re safe even when you’re not “doing.”

4. Build rhythms, not sprints.
Life isn’t a hackathon. Design a cadence that lets you recover, reflect, and realign. The best systems are sustainable, not just scalable.

What to Stop Doing

1. Stop glorifying urgency.
Urgency is not a personality trait. It’s often a trauma response. Check your pace. Challenge the pressure. Not everything is “now or never.”

2. Stop wearing burnout as a badge.
Exhaustion is not a flex. Being needed doesn’t mean being well. Learn to rest before your body forces you to.

3. Stop measuring yourself by output alone.
You are not your to-do list. You are not your title. Start valuing how you feel as much as what you do.

4. Stop trying to fix everything at once.
You're not a project. You’re a person. Healing and growth are non-linear. Let go of perfection and give yourself space to be in progress.

Being Type A isn't the problem. Being unaware of what it costs you is.

Once you see it, you can make better choices. You can channel your drive without draining your life. You can move fast without feeling hollow. You can stay ambitious—and still be well.

You just have to learn to lead yourself, not just your calendar.

And that starts with slowing down long enough to listen.