Mark Manson

It was a skill I was like consciously developing.

Um,

Whereas my introversion just feels like my default.

It feels like if there's no outside influence or pressure on me, I default to being a sack of potatoes on the couch.

I imagine that experience with the crusty toddler.

It was probably very draining for you.

Yes, incredibly.

You probably felt very exhausted afterwards, whereas buying the book bags for a bunch of kids, that probably just felt very natural.

Whereas somebody who's extremely disagreeable, calling that old man a crusty toddler would probably feel very natural to them.

It wouldn't be draining at all.

I think what we're driving at here and why we're pushing on this in the first chapter of this episode is because we really just want to establish the framework of who

who a person is, how do we define ourselves?

Because it turns out that the self is operating on three different layers simultaneously.

So we've established the personality traits, right?

It's like, it's the base and it's the center of gravity.

It's your natural tendency towards a pattern of behavior over a long period of time.

And yes, your personality, it is largely unchangeable.

It can be changed slightly over a very long period of time.

But we're going to argue in this episode that that is probably not what you should be focusing on.

The best thing you can do with your personality is just a self-understanding of like, this is my natural set point.