Day 1 : Describing My Personality

 

Photo by Ben Sweet (unsplash.com)

I used to think personality is just whether you are introvert or extrovert, but as I grow older, personality is not a simple as that. Cited from encyclopedia Britanica, personality is a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Our personality is hardly changes. If there are any changes these are very limited and slow or they occurs caused by trauma or life changing experiences.

 

So for the sake of describing my personality to the world wide web, I will be using that description to write down what I think my personality is. Because yes, there is already a bunch of personality theory out there from MBTI, Jungian cognitive functions to Zodiac personality - and it will be too much for me to willingly dive deep into those tests for this post (LOL)

 

DISCLAIMER: this is my personal opinion regarding my personality, if you happened to know me in person you can detest whether this is true or not based on your opinion about me! Here we go!

• I am somewhat perfectionist

I am pretty sure this is summarize my whole existence already. People who do know me in person definitely going to agree with me on this one. Why I said I am somewhat perfectionist, it's because now I can managed when should I be a full on perfectionist and when should I let things pass as it is. Probably I need to dig deeper about this personality trait and see if what is the trigger for it. Since I know I had this very early on, around 7-8 years old. I have one memory about this one. Back in the day, me and my sister like to read this weekly kids magazine called BOBO (the legendary LOL). We did not subscribe to the magazine, but every week we would go to the magazine/newspaper kiosk on the street and buy one. This magazine has got everything that you need for kids, from fun articles, colorful pages, comic page, learning section to a weekly quizzes (crosswords, math quiz, etc). The best thing from this magazine is the extra bonus in every edition. The extra bonus can be a papercraft, simple DIY toys and craft, plant seeds, posters, stationary, little comic books, and many more! Most of the time it's the DIY stuff. So long story short, me and my sister bought the magazine for the week and take turns reading it. The bonus item for that edition is a paper craft toys. So, while I was reading the magazine, (if I am remembering correctly) I feel the urge to have no.2 and rushing to the toilet (LOL). After I am done, the horror in my face when I found that my sister already did the papercraft by herself while I was in the toilet. I was sobbing immediately and throwing a fit demanding that I need to buy another one just so I can make the papercraft by myself. So my mom took me to get another copy of the magazine just for that. What a day.

 

Getting older, I quickly realize this can be such an annoying habit and can absolutely overwhelm me at all times. Especially when I am so fixated to do everything by my hand and only by my supervision and guidance. I can safely say, although I cannot get rid of this traits completely, I learned to managed it better. Now I will only be perfectionist on myself, means that everything that I do, if I am capable, I will always give my best to it. Whenever situation making me deal with somebody else, I will just go with them and push what I can do to get the best result realistically. Being a perfectionist is not always great, but if you can managed it, it can be a great traits to have. Don't settle for less, baby, yeah!

• I am a kind of pragmatic

If you don't know what pragmatic person is, cited from merriam-webster dictionary, it is a person who is concerned more with matters of fact than with what could or should be. A pragmatic person's realm is results and consequences. To put it simply, pragmatic person is a very logical person. Some says they're calculated. In my case, it's quite interesting cause I don't remember being a pragmatic child. But I am pretty sure I grow to be a pragmatic person based on what I experienced during teenage, young adult and early adult life. Being a pragmatic person made me capable of seeing what's needs to be done despite whatever emotion it may bring. For example, one of the family member trying to borrow some money from me. In my head all I saw if two people trying to do business. I ignore the fact that he is a family member and quickly rule out any emotional 'factor'. Means, if I say no, I will say no just because I can't lend him the money and will not say yes just because he is a family member.

Another thing about this personality traits is, most of the times I find myself doing a mini rant to myself. That it because I failed to understand why people can't take decision as you think they would, given the circumstances that they have.

 

It may seem like a good thing to have but I cannot help to feel like a heartless douche-bag sometimes because of this. Since being all pragmatic is all about acting out and choosing the most logical and proven option according to the situation and completely ignored other 'factor' in equation including emotion. And it doesn't mean that you can't feel any emotion or have emotion at all. You still do when you are a pragmatic, but your brain can separate them so effectively that you can have both without interfering each other. At least that what I feel all these years.

 

The good sides are: you can be very logical, perfect for problem solving, can easily navigate between choices to take and decision to make, you play by the rule and often be seen as 'smart people' 😜

While the down sides are: can be a bit of cold person, people can refer you as rude, you can't help but wondering yourself if you're capable of human emotion at all, sometimes (just sometimes) you can have a hard time trying to be 'free' and 'spontaneous' cause that is not likely for a pragmatic person.

 

In my opinion, the key here is just a moderation. A little too far/too much of one thing is not good. As stoicism teaches us, don't think too much about things that you can't control especially if it's involving somebody else not yourself. Just focus on what you can control.

 

So there you have it, folks! A little bit of my personality. By reading this one, you may think that I am such a snob and not fun to be around but trust me when I say I am actually quite a nice guy. So, if we meet in person some times in the future, feel free to say hi and have a bit of chat! Cheers!🍻