If there's some challenge in your life or something that you're facing or something unfamiliar,

that you have it in you to face that challenge.

Like you probably have the skills and the traits that are necessary to do that and you just

need to nurture them.

You need to go out and act as if, fake it till you make it and rise to the occasion.

And you can.

Don't let your personality determine the things that you do in life.

Hey people. Today we are going to pontificate on personality, what it is, what's fixed about it, and what's not,

and what we can plausibly do when we decide we're done with some part of ours and desire to do something about it. So, insofar as this is a

show about change, today's question to ask and answer is, is it possible to actually change

your personality? And if so, how and to what extent? Before we do that, I would like to take a moment

of gratitude to thank everyone for their enthusiasm for last week's episode with James Fry. I loved it.

I think it will stand the test of time as one of my all-time faves. But, you know, James is a lot. And for many,

an acquired taste, I imagine. So I can't say I was all that sure how all of you would receive it.

So it's been really great to get so much positive feedback and really heartwarming to hear from

so many of you how it recalled

the kind of conversation that harkens back to the early days of the show, the audio-only days,

when I was like this traveling salesman peddling my podcast wares and knocking on doors to greet

my guests with a suitcase full of gear that I would set up on their kitchen table or in a hotel room or some random conference room by the airport.

And I've got a lot of love and a lot of nostalgia for that time. There was a romance to it, a purity. And it was exciting because it was new. And unlike now, not that many

people were doing it. So if I was lucky enough to catch lightning with a guest like James Fry,

like I did with some of my early episodes with people like John McAvoy and David Gagons,

...