Who Am I?

"Who Am I?" brings back memories of a 1998 Jackie Chan movie who lost his memory in a helicopter crash. Is that what defines who a person is? Memories and experiences? Dictionary.com defines personality as the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual, or the organized pattern of behavioral characteristics of the individual.

So the question here is, are the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual defined since birth or are they a sum of events and experiences throughout that individuals life? Is there an original set of characteristics and behaviours that we fall back to or was that defined during childhood?

I believe our current characteristics and behaviours, our personality, is a direct consequence of the decisions and reactions that we have made in the past toward various events that have occured, be it directly affecting us or indirectly. These events range from simple epiphanies or big news such as Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. Events that get us thinking and convict us to change the way we live. For example in reference to Japan's earthquake disaster; to appreciate the land we live in and the people around us more, to be more charitable or to simply stop wasting our lives away and do something productive while we still can.

I've had friends who were afraid of change, or rather, the reason for the change. They do not want to change just because others have labeled them as such and such. If you change because you want to change the labels that people put on you, is that change good? Let's say some people label you as 'fat'. This makes you want to develop a healthy diet and active lifestyle to get into shape. Is this change good? Another example. People label you as a sarcastic @#$**. You start to realise how hurtful your comments are to others and decide to do something about it. This changes your personality. It changes your characteristic and behaviour. Does this mean you're changing who you really are and you're giving in to the expectations of the world? Are you losing your identity?

I believe not. One of my friends, Matt(not real name) once said:"If you met me 5 years ago, you would've met a completely different person." The 5 years ago version of Matt was a person who has gone through less 5 years of challenges and lessons in life, less 5 years of learnings and experiences and less 5 years of thought. Is that person 5 years ago Matt? Is the person I know today still Matt? The answer is yes, however, the latter Matt has gone through more than the former and I believe is a better person.

However, change does not always happen for the better. It can be a change for the worse. Some people give up easily when facing the challenges of life and slip into depression and self-pity resulting in addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex and other indulgences. This is because they have chosen to react that way. If they had chosen to react positively, to be calm and collected and taken appropriate steps to build their life back, we would see a different person - a person who changed for the better, not for the worse.

How we react to problems and issues and how we decide to live as a consequence of that is what defines our personality. It is what defines our character. It is what defines me.

I took a personality test online recently. I found that my results were different from the results of another test I took a few years back. I reckon this is a result of my learnings and my reactions toward events in my life. The test was a Jung Typology Test™ and my results were INTJ.

Qualitative analysis of your type formula

You are:
moderately expressed introvert
very expressed intuitive personality
moderately expressed thinking personality
moderately expressed judging personality

For more information on my test results:
http://typelogic.com/intj.html
http://keirsey.com/4temps/mastermind.asp