What is a personality?

Have you ever wondered how a personality is created? Why are you the way you are today? Why did you react to this pain or that pleasure in such a manner? Why do the chemical reactions in your brain behave the way they do? These are interesting questions to think about, and something that I have discussed lately with a very special friend.

I believe there are many different factors that contribute to making people the way they are. Let's imagine that we have two identical twins, and for the sake of this argument, they are 100% exactly the same, and they will turn out the same if raised in the same manner. Now, split these twins up. Raise one child in a small fishing community in China, and raise the other child by an affluent family in New York City. I think we can all agree that these two people now will be significantly different from one another.

So it's fairly easy to assume that the manner in which a child is raised will greatly shape the person in which they become, but will it actually shape their personality? If child X is happy go lucky and reacts in a specific type of way to their environment, will child Y have similar traits? How much of the personality is learned and how much of it are we born with? Obviously these two people will have vast cultural differences, but is it the manner in which the chemical reactions occur in the brain that creates an actual individual learned, or born with?

It is my opinion that initially, we are born with a specific type of wiring that makes each of us unique. However, it's just a blueprint, and the rest is shaped by our environment. Think about it. Look at different cultures around the world, living vastly different lives. In many of those environments you will see people that behave in a fairly similar manner. They have created an environment in which certain personalities and traits are the norm and people shape themselves into those molds.

You would not be the person you are today if variable X, Y, or Z was different. Throw in a dash of more/less money here, a pinch of childhood trauma there, and maybe finish it off with a significant life changing event. Stir it all up in a bowl named culture/location and bang! You are now a completely different person, with different reactions to the world around you.

My whole point is not to say any of this in a negative way or say that we are necessarily slaves to our environments, even though we kind of are. But ultimately I would like for people to think more about how they do things. Are you making good decisions that will have a positive impact on those around you? Especially when little ones are around. It's too easy to offer a smile instead of a harsh word. You never know when you might affect someones life, and create a new chain of events that affects the world. Better be on the safe side an ensure those changes are good ones. Then maybe one day it creates a chain reaction that ultimately leads us all to living in a better place.

Cheers!