First, some definitions for the context of this post:
- An Active Personality is one who has a clear idea of how they want the world to be and does not easily tolerate deviations from this ideal. When deviations occur, the active personality aggressively acts to remedy the situation.
- A Passive Personality is one who is flexible in their concept of how the world should be. They adapt rapidly to changing circumstance and are not stressed when things do not go according to plan.
These two personalities sit at opposite ends of a spectrum, the primary measure of which is stress. Now, so far as I can tell, stress exists to prompt us to change our lives. Like the pain that tells you, please, to move your hand off that hot iron, stress tells you that something in your life is out of whack and needs to be corrected.
The two personalities I defined are extremes when it comes to stress. The active personality feels stress acutely. Everything is a big deal, and as such they are aggressive about changing things. The passive personality has a far below normal level of stress. Bad situations don’t stress them enough to prompt action.
Which is better off? Thats a tough question, and one that I wonder about a lot. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. The active personality is burdened by too much stress; quite possibly nothing will ever be good enough. However, they will, probably, effect substantial and largely positive change on their life. The passive personality is free of the burden of all that stress, but they are also lacking motivation to improve their life.
Probably, as if often the case, the best option falls somewhere in the middle. Allowing the imperfections of life to affect you two deeply is a path to depression and frustration. Some things, frankly, are not worth worrying about. But some things are worth getting upset over, so long as you channel that anger towards improving the situation. The key is to recognize what situations merit getting stressed and which can be allowed to slip under the radar.
Of course, everyone’s priority will be different. I can’t tell you where to draw the line. However, you can take a closer look at where you fall on the spectrum and decide whether or not it’s working for you.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
you can be active / tranquil
I don’t totally agree with your assessment on the passive personality “The passive personality is free of the burden of all that stress, but they are also lacking motivation to improve their life”. Most people that know me would say that I have a passive personality but I’m very motivated. I think that you can further decompose the passive personality into sub-categories (also can do this with active), I would say I am more cerebral and passive but for sure not unmotivated.
Also forgot to add on, I liked the overall content of your post just wanted to add the above observation.
Thanks for the feedback!
There is tremendous stress in conflict-avoidance,something I, as a passive, do. Working myself up to confront someone, no matter how justified, takes days and wears me out. Competition is difficult, too. Ad the question of performance, or under-performance, is constant. So it’s not a cakewalk. Active personalities look better to me.
Where do these ideas come from? How many millions of people were analyzed before people started assigning these labels to people? How many countries were used in these studies? Even worst, how many people accept these ideas?
I was called” passive” by someone. Didn`t quite understand why. It was because of a situation that happened. My response should have been that I got upset over it, but didn`t. I feel in life that you just can`t holler, kick,and scream about everything. It is what it is sometimes. So I let it be. You can`t change people, so you just let them be free to be who they are. I am not a” push over” for people. I just believe in not going through a lot of changes in order to get what you want.
to be active is not is not merely to do..hahaha