The Critical Difference Between Your Personality And Your Temperament
If you try to live your life in integrity and alignment with your variety of “Personalities,” you’ll continually face uncertainty, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and conscious or unconscious stress.
Any one of those symptoms can lead you straight to a Shrink or Witch Doctor.
If you live your life in integrity, alignment, synch, and harmony with your “Temperament” and “Temperament Type,” you’ll continually face a clear sense of identity, self-confidence, self-esteem, peace, direction, and purpose. Happiness and easy success will follow you wherever you go.
At first, it may seem like the difference between “Personality” and “Temperament” is mere semantics. It may seem trivial.
The truth is that it’s one of the most important things you can learn in your life. Once you “get it,” you’ll discover how to make your life easier, reach your full potential, and achieve your highest purpose while ridding yourself of much of life’s stress, strain, and struggle.
As Soon As They Were Born...
Two days after my first grandson was born, I told my daughter, “He’s like me. On the quiet side, thoughtful, analytical, diligent, patient. He won’t be a needy baby, infant, child, or adult. Self-sufficient. Patient. He’ll like to figure things out for himself. He’ll like his independence. He’ll be a little on the shy side. He won’t be any trouble at all.”
“He’s only two days old. How on Earth do you think you know what his personality will be already?” she asked.
I said, “Those traits have nothing to do with his personality. He’ll have a variety of personalities at any given time in his life. And, he’ll have many different personalities throughout his life. I described a few of his obvious, permanent, non-changeable Temperament Traits. He’s a Green Melancholy Temperament Type.”
“Huh?” she said.
A couple of days after my younger grandson was born I told my daughter, “Fasten your seat belt. This one will be outgoing, loud, bold, determined, demanding, and adventurous. Impatient. Rather fearless. He’s liable to fall down and get hurt a lot because he’ll act before he thinks things through. And, he’ll always be on the move. He’s a Red Choleric Temperament Type.”
“Huh?” she said.
12 Years Later...
Now, at ages 12 and 10, they’re fundamentally what I said in every respect. I guarantee they’ll remain exactly that way throughout their lives.
It’s simple. It’s not mental. It’s not voodoo. It’s in their DNA.
"Personality" v. "Temperament"
In my experience, hardly anyone knows what “Temperament” or “Temperament Type” is. Those who think they know most often believe it’s synonymous with “Personality.”
It’s not.
If you’re a human with connections to other humans, this difference may be the most important thing in your life that you’ve never heard of.
It seems confusing because of constant and prevalent misuse. Misuse has become the norm.
That’s sad.
You will know yourself and others better by grasping the difference between Temperament and personality.
It will make your life better, easier, happier, and more fulfilling.
Your "Personality" ("Personalities")...
You can think of your personality as a computer software program.
Well, in reality, you don’t have “a personality.” You have multiple personalities. In fact, you have an unlimited supply of personalities.
For example, you have a personality you use at work. And, even within your work environment, you may have many personalities. The one when you’re face-to-face with your boss. A different one when you’re face-to-face with a subordinate. And yet another one when you’re out to lunch with your co-workers and peers.
And then you have the one you use when you’re playing with your kids. And a completely different one when you’re playing golf, cards, or drinking games with your friends.
Personalities are plentiful. They’re changeable. They’re not innate. You have to learn them. They can be fleeting or long term. You may have one that’s your favorite that you use most of the time. Other people might think that’s the “Real You.” They’d be mistaken.
You practice your personalities. You may come to believe that your favorite one…the one you use most often… is the “Real You.” You’d also be mistaken.
The “Real You,” in every meaningful sense of that term, is your “Temperament” or “Temperament Type.” Not your personality.
Your Temperament...
Your Temperament is your Nature.
It’s innate. You’re born with it. It’s encoded and embedded in your genes, genetic code, DNA, chromosomes, and genome. It’s your blueprint for life. It resides – complete in every detail – in every cell in your body…all 40 Trillion or so of them.
In computer talk, your Temperament is your operating system. You can load all sorts of interchangeable software programs and peripherals onto your operating system. The software doesn’t change the operating system at all. And, the software can’t run without the operating system. Your operating system is the boss. It’s the brains, heart, and soul of everything about your computer.
It’s the same with your Temperament. It’s your personal operating system. Your personalities are your personal software and peripherals.
Your personalities can’t run without your innate Temperament. And, they have no ability to change your Temperament at all. It’s permanent. Your personalities are not.
Your Temperament is the brains, heart, and soul of everything about your life.
From Conception On...
From conception, your Temperament was in place, intact, and complete. It’s persistent. It doesn’t change throughout your life.
Really? How can that be? Doesn’t everything change?
In the case of your Temperament, no, it doesn’t change.
Here’s why.
Your Temperament is part of your genetic system. Without this being a big biology and vocabulary lesson, here are a few basics as I understand them.
You inherit all your genes from your parents. Your genes control your natural, hardwired, traits, attributes, and characteristics. You have somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 genes in your body. Each gene is an individual unit of your entire heredity.
Genes link together into long strands. The linked stands of genes make up your DNA.
Your DNA is your life’s blueprint. It’s your operating system. It drives every aspect of who you are physically, intellectually, emotionally, and behaviorally.
All these genes and DNA combine to form your chromosomes. Everyone has 46 chromosomes. Twenty-three from your father (from the sperm) and 23 from your mother (from the egg). That’s what I mean when I say all this is complete at conception.1
Here’s the most amazing thing. Every single cell in your body contains all 46 chromosomes – your whole gnome including your Temperament. That means you’re living with around 40 Trillion copies of your Temperament throughout your life.
You can’t escape it, change it, or make it go away any more than you can escape, change, or make your fingerprints or eye color go away.
It’s just plain common sense that you get to know and understand everything you can about your Nature and the driving force in your life. It’s so powerful and so prevalent in your cells, your body, and your life, you owe it to yourself to use it to your advantage.
Summary - The Key Points...
- Your “Personality(ies)” are not your “Temperament” or “Temperament Type.”
- You have multiple personalities. You can change them at will. They are superficial. They’re built on top of your Temperament. Although they can be (if you so choose) closely related to your Temperament Type, they don’t have to be. You’re free to cloak yourself in a personality or personalities that are the exact opposite of your Temperament. It’s simply a behavioral pattern choice you can make.
- Your Temperament is your Nature. It’s how you’re hardwired by the Universe, heredity, and genetics. Your Temperament is completely unique. There’s never been another human exactly like you. Even if you’re an identical twin. For example, even identical twins don’t have identical fingerprints.
- Your Temperament contains your hardwired array of physical, character, behavioral, emotional, and intellectual traits, attributes, and characteristics. It is who you are. It is what makes you tick.
Conclusion - The Bottom Line...
Your Temperament is critical to your very being. It’s involved in every action, reaction, interaction, thought, and emotion that you have throughout your life.
It is who you are and why you do the things you do. It is your most fundamental Nature. It’s what makes you tick in all areas, aspects, situations, and circumstances of your life.
It is, I’d argue, the most important part of yourself, your happiness, and your success. It drives everything.
And, sadly, it’s likely that you know almost nothing about it.
That’s why The Power of Temperaments Academy is here. So you can finally discover and use your own most natural strengths, traits, attributes, and characteristics to help you solve your life problems and make positive changes in your life and lifestyle.
And, of course, avoid making that dreaded appointment with a Shrink or Witch Doctor.
Resources For Your Personal Growth...
Click Here for your FREE personalized Temperament Test and Detailed Temperament Type Analysis. This is a “must have” to improve your life and lifestyle.
Click Here for our FREE Video Course, “Discover Your Most Natural Strengths.” Discover your most Natural Strengths and the Hidden Superpowers they hold for you.
Click Here for more unique Personal Growth video courses and information about your Temperament at The Power of Temperaments Academy. Enroll in the Academy for FREE and browse the entire curriculum.
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Notes:
1 Your DNA is complete at conception. Also, primarily during the first trimester in the womb, there are some factors that can influence how your genes are expressed. Those factors don’t fundamentally change the genes. Any changes are only to how they may convert some of the instructions they receive. For example, although identical twins may have the same genes for height, if one does not get the exact same amount of nutrients in the womb, that one may be shorter or taller than the other twin.
Source: “Are Identical Twins 100% Genetically Identical?”
The University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
http://gap.med.miami.edu/learn-about-genetics/have-questions-about-genetics/are-identical-twins-100-genetically-identical