Of Picasso, Pick and Mix and Puzzles.

Which one describes your personality best?

Introvert/Extrovert
Calm/Energetic
Creative/Organised
Positive/Negative
Fun/Boring
Spontaneous/Structured

What if you find you fit each and everyone one of them depending on the day/situation you are in?

I find that I have such a dual personality, a mix (or mismatch) of characteristics and behaviours which are contradicting and yet complimentary to each other. I'm sure this is true for most people, we are of course not two dimensional, black and white creatures. It's like having pieces of different puzzles thrown together and trying to join them up. We're all just going to have to get creative with which of the pieces to feature depending on how we want our picture to look.

At work, I try to feature the calm, organised, positive, structured puzzle pieces. At home I can be introvert, energetic, calm, creative, fun, spontaneous. It's a bit of a pick and mix. I think we all choose different versions of ourselves to present to others - whether it's at work or home, face to face or online, with friends or family, at holiday or in the real world.

It's when we try to fit them all together, those various shades of grey, all us, all true but slightly filtered versions of all that lies within, that things get complicated.

For instance, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would feel uncomfortable with everyone who I work with knowing all about my life. Or how about your parents watching what you get up to when you go out (ok, maybe these days it's quite a sedate affair, but still...). Is your friends' perception of you the same as that of the people you work with? It's why we make our internet settings restricted, why we blog anonymously, why we dress different for work/play.

Of course some people seem to have it figured out. If everyone who knew them had to give a description of them they would all be very similar. They still had all those random puzzle pieces, yet have created a picture from all of them, beautifully fit together. The picture might look different depending on the light of day, where it's displayed, it might look beautiful to some, ugly to others but nevertheless, it's there, it's theirs.

One day, I hope to be able to fit all my pieces together and be proud to display them all for all to see rather than getting half way through the pick and mix puzzle, decide it looks too much like a Picasso and putting them back in the box. After all, a Picasso is a masterpiece.

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