When you imagine a conscientious person, you likely conjure up someone dependable, diligent, andself-controlled. They likely have a strong awareness of their surroundings, their own thought process and the perceptions of others, making conscientiousness a key predictor for many tremendously positive outcomes, such as developing healthy, stable relationships and good job performance. It is not surprising, therefore, that many strive to become more conscientious, and there are actionable ways to build up this valuable personality trait — even if being conscientious doesn’t necessarily come naturally for you.

What it Means to be a Conscientious Person

Have you ever received feedback from a friend or co-worker that you don’t necessarily follow through on your commitments? Perhaps you don’t realize when you’re acting impulsively and in the moment, and it impacts some of your personal relationships and work performance. Whether you fail to meet important deadlines,flake out on your friends, or are just muddling through your days without much direction, a lack of conscientiousness may be at the core of your issues.

Being a conscientious person entails the ability to set and keep long-term goals, be more deliberate about choices, act more cautiously, and take your obligations seriously. Often, this fundamental personality trait is an essential ingredient for personal and professional success, and as is the case for anyone’s personality, there are varying levels of how someone displays their conscientiousness.

You could think about there being two ends to the conscientiousness spectrum — low and high. By understanding the signs of each, a person is better able to spot opportunities for growth and develop in areas that may be lacking.

Traits of Highly Conscientious People

Traits of People Who Have Low Conscientiousness:

And most psychologist agree that the following are the most common traits of those lower on the conscientiousness spectrum:

Improving Your Conscientiousness

Although many view the personality as a concrete aspect of a person’s composition, there are ways to enhance or build certain characteristics. Both biological and environmental factors play a role in shaping who we are and thestrength of our personality traits, and as we age, our personalities tend to evolve. Our level of conscientiousness, for example, generally increases as we grow older and gain more life experience and responsibility.

Therapy to improve conscientiousness

In general, there are three types oftherapiesthat can help improve your level of conscientiousness: Behavioral and cognitive interventions, goal-related techniques, and cognitive remediation therapy.

Behavioral and cognitive interventions

This type of therapy focuses on teaching you the skills needed to solve real-world problems through assigning time-limited assignments. The difficulty with this approach is that completing assignments require a certain level of discipline and follow through, the very attributes low-conscientious people do not possess. In any case, this type of therapy is shown topromote positive changes in behavior.

Cognitive remediation therapy

As is always the case when seeking clinical support, finding a therapist that best meets your needs is essential to success. Fortunately, there are manyresourcesavailable to help you identify the best type of therapy for your needs.

Building and Maintaining Your Conscientiousness

The journey to improve conscientiousness is not an easy one, but it can be worth the time and effort — especially when conscientiousness positively impacts your health, work life, and personal life. This personality trait is an important indicator when it comes to developing and maintaining healthy,stable relationships, and can even help contribute to increased responsibility at work.

And while you may show signs of low-conscientious behavior today, there are clinically proven strategies to identify and shore up any areas of weakness for the future. The first step is always identifying and understanding your potential for growth.

Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.

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