Personality and Character - Is there a difference?

Hey! Our personalities are very similar

Remember the tips I told you for the interview. But most importantly, Be yourself.

If you’re confused which path to follow in your life, listen to your heart.

These are the words we often hear somewhere in our life from our known ones. But little do we think about what these sentences actually mean. Not only us, sometimes people who are saying these words might not actually know what they mean when they utter those words, which we regard as “pearls of wisdom”.

We generally assume personality and character are one and the same because nobody really taught us the difference between them. When we ask those couple of people randomly, they assume that both are synonyms for each other. So what exactly is the difference?

One notable author said, “Personality is what people see and gain information about you, It’s simply related to the physical presence of yourself out in the ‘real world’. whereas one’s character is only known when the person is alone and no one’s around”.

Basically your personality is what people perceive about you; your qualities and the like. For example, if you enjoy parties and are mingling around everyone very well, you are perceived as a sociable and friendly person. If you like to flirt around a bunch of girls, you’re considered a jerk and if you love to spend time around books, you’re considered a nerd (I’m generalizing, but you got the point right?)

Character, on the other hand, is very difficult to describe; because as the author said, they’re those qualities which we get to know about ourselves when we are in solitude. There are certain characteristics which we may do or not do and know about what we are doing & there are certain things we do which we ourselves don’t know that we do it. While it is essential to give ourselves some time as we can know and understand ourselves in a better way, it’s also equally dangerous to live alone when our minds are easily getting diverted towards negative thoughts.

Most of the times, we are used to getting validations from the outer world based on our physical presence, “Oh, this guy/girl is beautiful so she must be an awesome person or OMG, this guy is speaking politely to me and agreeing with me, he’s very understanding!” Should I tell you a secret, it’s not that ALWAYS because you think you’re making good judgements on the person from your own self-assumed rationalisations. I’m not saying that all the people are acting and fooling around you. They might not be pretending to be good and kind to you. But if they be always good and kind to not just you, but to any and every person they meet in any given circumstance, then it’s not their personality – It’s their character. When people say ‘be yourself’, they’re referring to your character and not your personality because you can groom your personality not your character.

Again, I’m not saying that you always have to be good and kind, else your character will fade away. Character never fades away. It’s just that sometimes we might be going through tough times, for instance, times when we have to make a choice between us and the world. Those times can be ignored. And if your determination is strong enough, you might return with a more stronger and steady character,i.e, become more kind and humble. If you do not come out like that, it just means you need more time to reach there.

Hope I did not confuse you with the personality character wordplay. May you grow both in terms of your Personality and Character!