Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is. ~ Mae West
Interesting.
According to the textbook Discovering Psychology: The Science of the Mind, personality traits fall into what they call The Big Five. Coincidentally, they use the acronym OCEAN to remember the 5; there is that water thing again, ha!
Openness to Experience: a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
Conscientiousness: a tendency to be organized and dependable, show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
Extraversion: energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, and talkativeness.
Agreeableness: a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
Neuroticism: the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression and vulnerability.
As you can imagine, each one of The Big Five can be broken down into smaller sub-definitions. That will be a future post topic.
In taking The Big Five test, it tells me I am: somewhat conventional, neither organized nor disorganized, relatively social and enjoy the company of others, tend to consider the feelings of others and am generally relaxed.
In picking three of my best personality traits, they fit very nicely with the above assessment:
1) Accepting. To me, this would fall under the agreeableness category. My clients call it something different. They say I am non-judgmental. I believe everyone has a story and I act accordingly.
2) Motivational. Is that a personality trait? It works for me! I would think this falls under the extraversion category. I love the capacity I have to help people take action. Action is the only way things get done!
3) Curious. Most every “personality” type test I take usually ends up with me being some sort of methodical, analytical researcher. I LOVE INFORMATION. There I said it. I am a data nerd. I think that would fall under the openness to experience category.
There it is. Three traits of which I am most proud. What would be your answer if asked to list three of your most proud personality traits?
Tomorrow? 10 of my favorite foods, EASY!!!
Peace Out, Biz