Want to discover 4 new ways to understand your personality? You probably used at least one test to find out more about your personality profile. Perhaps you have integrated the result of that test into our identity already and would describe yourself using desired qualities such a “resilient”, “patient”, “creative”, “hard working”, “confident”, “reliable” and so on.
Very few of us will talk about the less pleasant aspects of our being and some remain truly convinced that they are perfect and have nothing to work on. To a level or another, we are probably all deluded in our image about ourselves, as well as in our view of the others and the world around us. How else can we be when we grow up and live in a world that discourages imperfection?
The reality of our human nature is, however, a bit different. None of us is perfect or will ever be, and none of us will have a fully positive personality. Yet, many myths about human personality continue to be passed on from one generation to another.
1. We are all defined by our human nature
There are no good and bad people. All people have the potential to be good and evil. There are no smart and stupid people. All people have the ability to comprehend some areas of knowledge, but will struggle to absorb other type of information. There are no aggressive and non-aggressive people. All people have aggressiveness as a trait in their personality which can manifest to an extent or another at various times in their lives.
People are not calm or agitated, beautiful or ugly, cheerful or sad, confident or not confident, tidy or messy, fair or unfair, tolerant or intolerant, strong or weak, optimistic or pessimistic, friendly or unfriendly, vulnerable or not vulnerable, etc. They are every single one of these at various times in their lives, plus other four thousands adjectives that could be used to describe human personality.
2. We have it all within
Based on my experience of living in this world and working with people, we have it all within. All possible human traits, positive, neutral and negative, all of them without exception. They are active or dormant deep within us, but they can be always brought into our manifested behaviour.
It is mainly up to us and our mind-soul-body response if we manifest in a way or another, but also up to the world around us which impacts what we think, how we feel and how we behave.
3. Measurement scales cannot capture the complex human experience
Like many other professionals, for a long time I’ve looked at personality through several traditional theories and a number of tools created to support them. Those tests and inventories have served their purpose in the past, but nowadays we make ourselves a great disservice if we continue to follow them blindly.
Nowadays we know more about the physical brain activity and its software – the human mind. We know that we are far from understanding the human mind completely, but we know enough to not limit our personality to a profile defined by a set of behaviours.
The technological revolution has given us all the chance to acquire information and communicate with the world like never before. We can instantly access hundreds and thousands of people in all corners of the world and learn about their mindsets and the culture surrounding them.
In the theory of personality I am developing I look at personality using a graph of traits existent in all people and manifesting on different levels at different times of their lives. The dynamic changes in both the outer and the inner world impacts peoples’ thinking and behaviour and their personality graph will change its shape all the time.
Today I don’t feel tied to any measurement scales. They cannot possibly capture the unbelievable human experience. We can all opened our minds and accept that we are complex beings and we are constantly changing. This process of adjustment is helping us preserve our mental wellbeing.
4. We can be the masters of our own personality
In practical terms, we all have the fantastic opportunity to reinvent ourselves every second of our lives. This is one of the few real choices we can make in life.
We can decide who we want to be, what thoughts to entertain in our minds and how to behave. We can be the masters of our own personality and we do not need any test or theory of mind to tell us who we are.
When we reflect on how we think and behave, we have the chance to adjust and make our personality more aligned with who we want to be. It only takes a little introspection, self-belief and willingness to create your future in your own terms, free from labels and categorisations. It is time you open your mind to the new theory of personality.