Jealousy Is An Ugly Emotion, But It

Schwartz's Research Suggests Something Important: We Can Stretch Our Personalities, But Only Up To A Point. Our Inborn Temperaments Influence Us, Regardless Of The Lives We Lead. A Sizeable Part Of Who We Are Is Ordained By Our Genes, By Our Brains, By Our Nervous Systems. And Yet The Elasticity That Schwartz Found In Some Of The High-reactive Teens Also Suggests The Converse: We Have Free Will And Can Use It To Shape Our Personalities.

The Secret To Life Is To Put Yourself In The Right Lighting. For Some, It's A Broadway Spotlight; For Others, A Lamplit Desk. Use Your Natural Powers -- Of Persistence, Concentration, And Insight -- To Do Work You Love And Work That Matters. Solve Problems. Make Art, Think Deeply.

Introversion- Along With Its Cousins Sensitivity, Seriousness, And Shyness- Is Now A Second-class Personality Trait, Somewhere Between A Disappointment And A Pathology. Introverts Living In The Extrovert Ideal Are Like Women In A Man's World, Discounted Because Of A Trait That Goes To The Core Of Who They Are. Extroversion Is An Enormously Appealing Personality Style, But We've Turned It Into An Oppressive Standard To Which Most Of Us Feel We Must Conform.

I Actually Find Extroversion To Be A Really Appealing Personality Style.

But When The Group Is Literally Capable Of Changing Our Perceptions, And When To Stand Alone Is To Activate Primitive, Powerful, And Unconscious Feelings Of Rejection, Then The Health Of These Institutions Seems Far More Vulnerable Than We Think.