Is your life and personality more the product of your own will or events out of your control?

Answer 1

Nature vs Nuture question...
As i get older ... i'm just starting to edge into my 30's I'm really starting to edge toward the Nature end of this argument.. I see so many people who have personality issues I just can't help but think it's all Chemical and there is nothing someone can do to change the way they act. In my experience people don't change, the just discuise thier actions to appear differently. When I was younger I really felt the answer to this question was 100% Nuture and that people are the sum of their experiences... It's probably a good thing considering how many broken homes people are growing up from in these last 2 decades.

Answer 2

This might sound cliche - but life really is a deck of cards. Don't know if you are a card player, I'm not but still see it this way.

We don't have any control over what cards we receive, what situations we start with. We could be born into poverty or abundant wealth. We could be born with a physical deformity, or a top athlete. Those things we have no control over, just as a poker player has no control over what cards he receives in his opening hand.

Now depending on what is in your hand and how you play it, both affect the results of the game. You can have a really bad hand to begin with, and other people will play cards that make you think twice, but if your clever and determined you can make a good go of it. On the other hand if you throw in a bad hand early, you might have missed some good opportunities, and likewise, if you squander a good hand you have also missed out.

Both your personality (character) and the situations out of your control are equally influential to who you become and finally the product of your life.

Strange analogy I know, but completely valid.

Answer 3

My life is a product of my own choices and the events are the aftermath of my choices.

So.... it's all in my control.

I choose certain things.

And the outcome is my own.

Of course, fate plays a role.

But it's all due to my choices and my way of thinking.

Answer 4

Both! I am master of my own destiny, I decide which way I choose to live. But there are events that help shape my life and the way I think (learning through them).

Answer 5

i think it is more a product of events around us that are out of our control. we react to things that happen out of our control and these instances define our personality. we are an outcome of many situations that we have once confronted and our present personality is the result of how we reacted to these circumstances.

Answer 6

50/50

there are supposedly studies that it is all you, but that is impossible

if 2 people with like personality traits are put into opposite situations, different reactions and outcomes would occur

if 2 people with opposite personality traits are put into the same situations, different reactions and outcomes would also occur then

Answer 7

when you are young its shaped by events and as you grow up you control how you act.

Answer 8

both....stronger ppl succeed in taking control of events and turn them in their favour (not all the times though)..weak ppl meekly surrender to it and blame it on circumstances...