For people who are stubbornly perfectionistic, obsessive and compulsive, change can be hard to come by. Particular personality traits that can be positive can also manifest negatively. In this post we explore six of the main blocks to change, including, avoidance motivation, impatience, magnifying difficulties, unrealistic goals, being too cerebral, and clinging to the safe benefits of old ways.

There are both among us and within us young souls and old souls. Some of them fulfilled and some of them unfulfilled. Typically, people with obsessive-compulsive personality traits are old souls, and they can express that part of them either constructively or destructively. But usually their young soul is silenced.

This old soul is one manifestation of the archetype of the Senex, or the old man. Traits such as wisdom, caution, recognition of rules and boundaries, order and stability are typical of it. In his less fulfilling manifestations, he becomes rigid, judgmental and constricted, and represses expression of his young soul, the archetype of the Puer. In healthier manifestations he is the Wise Old Man who we can call on to guide us in difficult situations. In this episode we get to know the Senex and his younger counterpart, the Puer, to see how they affect us, and how we can live their calling in more fulfilling and effective ways. We’ll talk about why you should bother with this whole crazy idea of archetypes. We’ll also follow four siblings from the Elderwood family to see how these archetypes can affect our path in life.

Risk aversion once kept us alive. Today, it often keeps us trapped. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, personality theory, and clinical experience, this essay explores how outdated risk‑avoidance strategies—especially common in obsessive‑compulsive personality styles—shrink our lives, suppress desire, and turn comfort zones into psychic prisons. Living longer isn’t the same as living better.