The Thing About Personalities

"If it weren't for caffeine I'd have no personality whatsoever!" ~ Anonymous

Brands have personality. Rooms have personality. Dogs have personality. And so do we (assuming you're a human being). No matter who we are, how rich or poor, quiet or loud, introverted or extroverted, funny or serious, or fat or thin: we all have one. Those who associate with us will attest to whether we have an agreeable personality or one that makes them wonder why euthanasia is outlawed. According to Briggs Myers, there are 16 general types of personalities, but the truth is everyone's personality is unique. No matter how much we may act alike, our personality is ours alone. This is a good thing because, after all, if we had the same personality as someone else then we wouldn't be us. We'd just be another them and that wouldn't do. The distinctive characteristics of our personality give us the individuality most seek and can determine how enjoyable our lives pan out to be.

Experts say there are 5 major personality traits including extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and (my personal fav) neuroticism, but some say that list stops short and should include goofiness, assholeness, dumbness, believability and the capacity to dominate entire conversations (blogs not included).

The word personality is said to be derived from the ancient Greek word, persona; used to describe the masks worn in the theater in those days to portray different characters and has evolved to mean the mask we choose to show the world. The behaviors we display elicits behaviors in others we interact with. If you exhibit bad behavior the problem is that one thing can lead to another and they can feed on each other which can cause a chain reaction and before you know it you have a whole bunch of behaviors blowing up and going all nuclear on you. So, most of us chose a set of behaviors that cause the fewest craters. Unless you're weird, of course. Then, all bets are off. We call this condition alternatively being all f*cked up, up tight, wacked out, or if you're a boring trained professional; the proud owner of a personality disorder. Slight adjustments are then called for or one can be sent into proverbial interpersonal banishment. Which is fine for those of us who just want a calm life unburdened with the messiness of social interaction. On the other hand those fortunate enough to have great personalities can cruise through a life rich with the rewards of good manners and likeability.

We can't buy a good personality. We can just try to fix problems with ours when and if they arise. Sometimes it takes people that care about us getting in our faces. And that's okay. Because when we're jerks sometimes we don't realize it because we're all wrapped up in ourselves. The process, while stressful and at times distasteful, must work because after thousands of years some of us are still talking and getting along...