Tag: Personality

Live with Passion

lindseyruns4 Comments

I’ve always been curious as to how people choose their interests. I often wonder whether it was by accident or maybe through a friend. Maybe they saw it on television or on the streets. Either way, I love seeing how far along they come with the time that they invest into that particular hobby or interest.

All throughout my life, I’ve had friends that have their own unique skills and talents. Dancers, gymnasts, skaters, musicians, singers, you name it. I’m constantly inspired by my diverse group of friends because they all lead such different lives and are passionate about different things. I surround myself with these kinds of people because of their drive and determination to succeed. There’s a saying that goes something like “the friends that we choose are a reflection of ourselves” I’m not sure if that’s how it actually goes or if I just made that up, but regardless, that’s what I believe.

When I dissect my friends by their personality type, I have a pretty clear understanding of why they are good at the things they’re good at. It’s because of the time and effort that they put into those things.

As we get older, it’s easy to lose sight of the things that we love. We grow up, get jobs, re-prioritize what’s important to us, and fall out of touch. Looking at my friends now, I’m seeing that a lot of them now have jobs, but are still attached to the things that they love and they’re all doing pretty well for themselves. They’re happy.

As I said earlier, I love to see how far along people come with the things that they love. If we work hard enough at the things that we’re passionate about, it will eventually manifest into something great. The time that we invest into our daily tasks is directly correlated to our success.

All of the decisions that we make in life are a reflection of ourselves. Similar to the way our friends are a reflection of ourselves, the same goes for the hobbies we choose. And this also goes for our work. We should never lose sight of our passion and interests because someday, it can and will define us.

Live with passion. Always. Something great will eventually happen.

Identity Crisis: Online versus In-Person

lindseyruns1 Comment

In the current realm of social media, it’s easy to claim oneself as anything they want. Through the internet, you can create an online-version of yourself, who has an insurmountable number of talents, skills, hobbies, professions, etc.

And in terms of personality, you can be funny, political, philosophical, dramatic.

You can be as passive as you want or as aggressive as you want; Say little to nothing or tweet every 27 seconds.

Basically, anything goes. Every post is fair game.

However, the downside to this is determining authenticity and credibility.

In my Freshmen year of college, I wrote a paper (which I still take a great deal of pride in) about the impact that Wikipedia has on education and the way students learn. I wrote this paper 4 years ago, and I’m even more blown away by how quickly information is relayed over the internet.

There are almost no surprises anymore. We know everything about everything and everyone.

Getting back to the topic of online-versions of people, there are two ways to look at it:

  1. Social Media simplifies the way we get to know people
  2. Social Media complicates the way we get to know people

To start with the first point of view: Social Media simplifies the way we get to know people

There are a few things…

Getting the dirt on someone nowadays is very accessible. A majority of people across the globe have at least one online profile of some sort, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Vine, OKCupid…the number of platforms are endless. Even if they didn’t create a profile themselves, the chances are that there is a website out there that has already created one for them.

Gathering information online and piecing it together to form a hypothesis about what a person is really like is not exactly rocket science.

Similar to a way a person carries themselves in real life, such as the way they walk, talk, sit, etc., is the same as the way a person carries themselves over the internet. The pictures they post, the links they share, the statuses they write. Most people can draw assumptions off of someone based solely by looking at their profile picture. And then there’s the information that they post.

The “About Me” section is critical. No one wants to seem too much of a certain way, so they try to sum themselves up in as many different descriptions as possible.

People include their job, musical preferences, the school they went to, the kind of food they like, the movies they enjoy…the list goes on.

This is the part that simplifies everything.

Many girl friends of mine create pros and cons lists to evaluate certain situations. Typically, it’s for the guys they date. Here’s an example:

Pros:

  • Has a good job
  • Is athletic
  • Likes Mexican food

Cons:

  • Too short
  • Just got out of a relationship
  • Lives too far away

It’s easy for anyone to weed out the traits that we don’t like before we even meet person

And onto the second point of view: Social Media complicates the way we get to know people

The tricky part is that it’s really unfair to judge a person that you’ve never even met in person.

Again, similar to the way a person carries themselves in real life, we can make the same judgments in person as we do online.

But as the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”

You always have to give people the benefit of the doubt. Chances are that you are wrong about them…or right. It can go either direction, but that’s exactly why you have to see for yourself.

Disclaimer: Meeting people is at your own discretion. I am not an advocate for online dating or anything of that sort.

In summation, you never really know what a person is like. Sometimes there are people that you have known in-person for years, but still haven’t quite learned everything. It’s impossible.

We’re all complicated individuals. Every experience has molded us differently. So again, you have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. People could surprise you and like I said, it could go either direction.