i’m not so sure that people can really change their nature. i think there a fundamental parts of who we are and how we interact with the world that make up our personality. certain characteristics that explain how we react in different situations, and words that we define ourselves with. each of these goes to explain some innate trait or function in our life. psychology has the big five-Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. but there’s so much more than just those discrete categories… yet i think they work as a good jumping off point.
someone could describe themself as extraverted (or the inverse) — they would display traits of talkativeness and apparent energy from social situations. now, i don’t think this is a “you have it or you don’t” but rather a tendency. a habit. a trait which fuels the practice. the category of “extroversion” could be compared to a circle. where, the more traits of extraversion one displays, describes themselves as, and practices — the larger their circle is. the same can be said for the inverse of introversion. i don’t think these are necessarily mutually exclusive. i think one can have both “circles” at different points. but
yeah.. the circles get bigger or smaller depending on how invested we are into the practice of them. personality i guess is the amalgamation of those practices and choices. who we are.
so getting better — or rather.. becoming more aligned with who we are and how we think we want to be, i guess is incorporating those practices. making them unconscious and part of the way we are rather than how we “try to be.”
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