PERSONALITY

Over the years I have grown to appreciate the concepts and ideas that make up this eleven lettered word that we use so often. While I may not have the knowledge to fully analyse these concepts , I believe I have a perspective to share. If you asked a person that knows me fairly well, they would tell you that I think a lot, sometimes a little too much. It took a lot for me to accept the fact that its just the way I am and I’m not entirely sure that that’s true or there are other external factors that have piled up with internal factors to form what I refer to as my personality. So what is this thing we refer to as personality?

According to the American Psychological Association, the term personality refers to person-to-person differences in characteristic models of thought, feelings and behaviour. In other words, a person’s personality determines how they think, feel and behave. This seems like a no brainer right ? Like I mentioned before we use this term every freaking time.  My focus though is on the differences that each of us have and how they make us unique .

I love personality tests so much. A friend of mine described them as “a scientific version of getting your fortune told” and I honestly couldn’t agree more. The main reason I love them though is because it gives me an opportunity to appreciate the human mind. It feels like I’m holding a human brain in my hand. As weird as that sounds , I find that quite exhilarating. There’s a sense of excitement that I get when I learn how another person’s brain operates.

Its weird how we look at unfamiliar personalities like a pandora’s box. I did too at some point. I feel like that’s the natural human response to most unfamiliar territory. The comfort zone to some extent is quite addictive. Honestly I don’t fit in to most social groups, partly because I’m kind of socially unskilled and I believe it’s  also because according to Myers Briggs’ 16 personalities theory, I exhibit traits that are associated with a personality type found in only 2 percent of the world’s population. Here’s where it gets mind boggling. I looked at other people’s traits and thought “oh wow, they are so weird” . So I stopped to think about it and realized that my version of weird is another person’s normal and vice versa. So what then do I do with this revelation? Well, if I confine myself to thinking everyone is supposed to act a certain type of way I would be living in a world that lacks diversity and unpredictability, both of which I love so much. If I choose to live ignorant of diverse personality types I would be living in an imaginary world; my sight would be blurred to reality. So what’s my conclusion then ?

I find striking similarity between human life and jigsaw puzzles. The complexity of life is like a good jigsaw puzzle. A good jigsaw puzzle consists of numerous pieces and usually takes a while to complete but the satisfaction in completing it makes it all worth it. Most importantly, a good jigsaw puzzle consists of different pieces that together form a masterpiece.  

Speaking as a person who has questioned the worth of life numerous times, I can proudly say that one thing that has reminded me of the beauty of this earth is the people that are in it. Our differences make us unique from each other but also make us who we need to be to realise our need for each other. We need extroverts and introverts,loud talkers and the soft spoken, the famous and the faceless. Our ability to live with each other in spite of our differences makes us better citizens of this planet. So maybe lets ditch the pandora’s box and figure out this life thing … together.

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Let me know what you think in the comments !

References:

• https://www.apa.org/topics/personality
• https://www.16personalities.com/articles/our-theory