All of us have distinct personalities, and all of us can, without knowing it, push some of our inborn characteristics to an unhealthy extreme that can wreak havoc in a marriage.
—Gary Smalley

The personality inventory you take is not like a test you fail or pass. It's more like a fingerprint that shows your tendencies. Tendencies can change, unlike fingerprints. Discovering your personality tendencies in relationships helps to show where your strengths and weaknesses exist. Each of us has these personality strengths in combinations which are variable and adjustable. They need to be brought into balance. Therefore, the goal of this session is to help you understand where you are "out of balance" in terms of your personality. We've found that our greatest personal strengths—when pushed out of balance—become our greatest weakness. For instance, let's say that your strength is that you have tremendous enthusiasm, this becomes a weakness as your enthusiasm turns into manipulation.

If a particular character trait of yours is too extreme, to the point that it irritates your mate or your children, you can decide to push that trait down and push other traits up. Let's take a closer look at the four different personality types and see what happens when our strengths are pushed out of balance:

L is for Lion

What does a balanced Lion look like? Since Lions are naturally hard on problems, their greatest relational need is to add softness to their natural style to keep from being too hard on people in the process. Also, lions may need to learn that meaningful communication takes time. They need to slow down and discuss decisions with others, not simply charge ahead on their own.