Boxing our thought

Recently I somehow has impulse to re-read one of my book collection, Personality Plus. The book has been my companion since I bought it in 2004; I did the quiz many times, and I had different results and learning from it too. This book is one of my favorite too, thanks to a friend who recommended it to me.

Personality Plus Cover Page

Interestingly, I gain different understanding every time I read it, including this time. As I had my blog pretty recent, I can’t share what did I had few years back. So, what is my story about this book this time?

I will give you a very concise summary about the four basic personality inside the book if you haven’t read this book*. They are:

  1. Sanguine, the attention center, bright as sun, cheerful, like to be surrounded by friend
  2. Choleric, the leader, high in spirit as fire, determined, strong willed
  3. Melancholy, the thinker, quiet, careful
  4. Phlegmatic, the considerate, great listener

* is based on my understanding, there are many ways to describe each personality traits, for common reference Four Temperaments.

And here is my story,

Each person may have more that one trait, combined with other trait to form what the writer called as natural combination and compliment combination. As people grow, we may have different results, because of the environment or personal experience. My result are combination of three traits, melancholy, choleric and sanguine. It always around that three traits just with different pair.

For example, I can be melancholy-choleric when it comes to work. This means, I can be considered as detailed oriented person and can make a perfect plan because of my melancholy side. I also strong-willed and tough because of my choleric side. But, like a double edge sword, each trait has strength and weakness on the other side. Melancholy person tends to procrastinate until they find the perfect solution, and choleric person can be bossy and inconsiderate.

When it comes to my social life, I can be choleric-sanguine person. My choleric side will make sort of the leader of the group, and my sanguine side will make me as chatty person. On the other hand, I can be very controlling and talk anything without thinking.

Therefore we can say that none of the personality is bad. We just need to keep the balance, not to bring it over to the extreme sides.

But, I used to set some boundaries after knowing about this. I analyze myself and my friends. How should I react when certain combination happens? This is a perfect example how my melancholy brain works. Most of the time, I have a cycle to be at the most bottom of my spirit because of this personality then after I sicked of being miserable, my sanguine and choleric take charge to become more like normal myself.

Then at the last part of the book, the author reminds us (especially me). Knowing all the personality doesn’t mean we need to have to limit ourselves, for instance I’m a choleric person, so I should behave like this and this. Instead, it will help us to recognize when we’re going to be extreme on certain side. Nor we have to be narrow minded, like since I’m a sanguine person, I can never be more organized and will be sanguine person forever. I like they way the author describe about it as we can’t change the base but we are still able to mold it to become something beautiful that we want.

So, aren’t understanding this is very interesting? You can try to answer the test if you want to know more about yours here.