Wednesday, January 11, 2012

#6 The Developing Personality Deception (Personality Change)



The sixth deception is what I call the “Developing Personality” deception. About 66% of us believe that we can change our basic personality and alter our talent distribution as we get older. The truth is, with regard to our talents and potential strengths we don’t change much.

My first grade teacher commented on how “serious” I was. My wife was concerned on our first date that I might be too serious for her, and in my last performance appraisal at work my manager commented on my seriousness and how it might benefit me to loosen up a bit.

I’m happy to report that I was able to convince my wife that I had a seriously non-serious side. I was able to quickly produce a picture of me dancing on a bar in Las Vegas taken on a company scavenger hunt and a reasonably professional recording of me singing Johnny Cash’s song, “A Boy Named Sue”. I do loosen up once you get to know me, but chances are your first impression of me will be that I’m a fairly serious type. That hasn’t changed much since first grade.

Columbia University’s Nathan Brody once commented in a speech, "Change is the process of becoming more like who we are.” Science author, William Wright says that “as we age, we tend to become more like the genetic blueprint with which we started in in life”.

Of course our values change and our beliefs change. The apostle Paul’s dramatic conversion in the Bible was an example of this. He went from encouraging the murder of Christians to becoming one and then to spending his life urging others to become one. His beliefs and values experienced a dramatic change. But his talents, the core of who he was didn’t change one bit. He was intense and driven before his conversion. He was intense and driven after his conversion.

In addition to changing your beliefs and values, you can also develop your talents into full blown strengths. By adding skills that compliment your innate abilities you can maximize your growth. You can also add knowledge, both book learning and experience. Again, if you do this in areas that compliment your natural ability your growth will be amazing.

Your Moment of Truth: You can’t change who you are, but you can become so much more by fully developing your talents and focusing them on worthwhile goals!
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