What's Your Temperment? Here's Mine for the Ecotrain QOTW
Ecotrain's Question for this week - Join in here: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/what-s-your-temperament-the-ecotrain-question-of-the-week-is-back
"Describe in your own words what Temperament means to you, and what your own temperament is like. Share some positive and/or negative stories of how your temperament has affected your life."
Also asked:
Are we born and predestined to be a certain way, or is our upbringing responsible for whether we are calm and serene, or feisty and dominant? Can our temperament change, or are we stuck with how we are for our entire life?
My response to that is yes our temperaments can change.
The reason I say that is because I have seen changes happen in myself over the years as I matured and through the different stages of my life.
Also if you look to palmistry (which I use to do when I was younger and remember comparing my two palms and the one hand showed more what you were born with while the other shows more what you become.)
From the Indian Palmistry Institute they give a much better description of the difference between the two palms
The passive hand tells the past habits and incidents of life. These past habits and behaviors were the results of his environmental and genetic influences (from parents). The active hand tells about the present and future. The active hand tells the present behavior of the person and what changes this person has brought into his life. So it can be easily understood that if a person has different lines in both of his hands, then he has brought many changes into his life. If he has better lines and signs in his active hand, then he is making positive changes. However, if his passive hand has better lines then it clearly means that he had better potential and had good chances, but he could not make use of them.
The lines on my two palms are quite different and in a good way. How about yours?
The changes I have seen in myself is that I was a quiet, shy child with a bit of a temper ( I was told that came with the red hair, actually mine was strawberry blonde)
As I matured and became a mother I was less inclined to take risks and became real protective (of my child). Funny when I was younger I had learned to fight but never in a physical way, more with words and I really didn't like physical fighting and would shy away from any physical confrontations, as a mother I would dive right into them if necessary.
Yet something about being a mother, motherly love, and I transferred that into other areas of my life, I became a more loving person.
I am a gentle person and have always been good with children and animals.
Thus I chose a new vocation for myself as an Educational Associate working with young children. This put me in a position of being the mature individual in a position of authority and I really didn't want to abuse that. I realized that in this position I could make a difference in these kid's lives and help them develop to their greatest potential.
Thus I was no longer hot tempered but became more of a "Steady as she goes" type person, keeping my cool through a lot of shenanigans.
I also noticed in myself that I really liked challenges and kids can be very challenging! But I was a little taken back when I thought I was being compassionate with the kids but realized that I really just enjoyed overcoming challenges. I am working on the compassionate aspect and I have become more empathetic and caring.
I am a reliable person and a team player but I also have a very competitive aspect (I think that comes from my playing competitive sports.)
I seem to have a lot of drive (definitely had lots of battles with laziness, which I seemed to come out of with the upper hand) When I believe in something I will sometimes work myself to exhaustion, although as I come into my senior years I am more careful of that.
I'm a fairly honest person although I still have times when I want to slant the truth a bit but I'm working on that too.
That leads to a point - as we write about our temperaments how much are we tempted to slant it towards our good side and if someone else were to state our temperaments would it be so shiny! Anyway, there you have my temperaments. Ask someone else who knows me very well if you want a different take on it.
Images: Top image was my creation from a stock picture bought through Graphicstock. The Mama picture was from Pixabay.
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Ah slanting the truth... yes I'm sure I do that all the time at least just slightly, especially when it comes to memories. I think I tend to embellish some stories even though I try not too... makes me think of the movie Big Fish.
Thanks for telling us that it is possible to change tempreaments.
Ya, that's what I've been observing in myself lately, how when I tell stories of myself I tend to slant it to make it look better. Is that pride raising it's head or a desire for more recognition? H-m-m! But being aware of it I'm also more likely to quit doing that. Also as I become more self confident and self assured I'm more willing to do that.
Hey @porters
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. I agree with you that we have a certain control over how we react to things. I do think that it is also made up of other factors such as parents, environment and life experiences. So within the limitation of those things we can alter our temperament.
I think it was a cool point that you mentioned about how others see us. If they reiterated the same sentiment towards us as we do about ourselves, would we still be comfortable with it. I'm quite self conscious and I don't think I would be.
I am an ESL teacher and a sports coach and people tell me all the time that I am so patient. I'm actually so impatient it's unreal so I don't know what they are seeing but it's not patience!
Thanks for sharing.
Gaz
There is something to be said about what we present as our public face and how it can be different then our private face which can be closer to our true nature.
Agreed that we have perimeters to work within for what changes we can make and it is always good to be able to accept the things that are beyond our control to change.
Definitely. I only trust my immediate family to see my faults and weaknesses. Unfortunately for them! :S
True, our temperament can never be the same all along. It changes with time and situations in our life. I feel as we get older we get more stable with it.
Definitely, as we mature we seem to mellow out, probably because our energy levels level out and we don't have the raging hormones of youth!
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A thought-provoking question for sure, @porters! I completely agree with our temperaments changing as we get older, and much like you, I found big changes in my own after motherhood. And you make an excellent point about how we might skew our assessment of our own temperaments - in fact, any time I mention how IMMENSELY patient I am, my kids are guaranteed to bust out laughing... 😂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 😊
Motherhood is a major change in our lives so rightly so our temperaments would change too.
Ya! Kids are pretty good at seeing things as they are! 😂
That is an interesting question! Of course I just looked down at my palms now out of curiosity. Both of my palms actually look pretty similar. Not sure how telling that is, but I think my temperament has stayed fairly close to what it was as a child. Perhaps that is an aspect of my non-risk-taking personality, haha!
It is definitely interesting to see what others have to say about us. I think just as often as they may be able to see some of the bad things, others can also be more objective with the good sides that we might not always acknowledge ourselves!
Ha! It re awoke my curiosity too, when I looked deeper into palmistry to remember what it was I had found out when I was younger, about the two different hands. You must have had a good start to your life if it is remaining constant.
I never looked at it that way
Good to consider.
Great answer to the question!
I totally agree, there are many things in our lives that changes us, especially age, and that is as it should be.... we can only hope the changes that are made are for the better the older and wiser we get.
I am intrigued by the palm reading, it made me lift my hands and look at them, now I must go and research it, you have me very curious.
No truer words ^^^^ spoken! The truth hurts sometimes and we do not want to be reminded of our own flaws!
Oh yes! Not to be reminded of our flaws for we tend to hold this certain image of ourselves that when contradicted does hurt but that is also a good way to see the change that may be needed so you can grow.
I picked up a public domain book that you can download free off Google Books called "Hand-book of Modern Palmistry"
By V. Metz (de) 1888 with some good info in it.
Here's a link from my search https://books.google.ca/books?id=adg8AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Hand-book+of+Modern+Palmistry+By+V.+Metz+(de)&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi41rvyg7LgAhVkilQKHcRIBJ4Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Hand-book%20of%20Modern%20Palmistry%20By%20V.%20Metz%20(de)&f=false
To help satisfy that curiosity!
Awesome! Thanks @porters.... popping off to get it now 😁
there is hope! we can change ;-) very happy to hear that! thanks for brining in the indian palmistry perspective.. i had forgotten about that left and right.. with the potential always there for change..
<3n xxx
Yep I see changes in me throughout the years. Major changes along with major changes in my life. Some are really good but unfortunately some are not so good. I have noticed I easily get angered which is not good. I need to get that sorted out. Also lines on my palms are very different.
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