That magnetic and mysterious something
that is easy to recognize but difficult to define, is not
so much something that is acquired from without, as
something that is released, from within.
This real self within every person is attractive. It is magnetic.
It does have a powerful impact and influence upon
other people. We have the feeling that we are in touch
with something real—and basic—and it does something to
us. On the other hand, a phony is universally disliked
and detested.
Why does everyone love a baby? Certainly not for what
the baby can do, or what he knows, or what he has, but
simply because of what he is. Every infant has "personality
plus." There is no superficiality, no phoniness, no
hypocrisy. In his own language, which consists of either
crying or cooing, the baby expresses his real feelings. He
"says what he means." There is no guile. The baby is certainly
honest. He exemplifies to the nth degree the psychologic
dictum—"Be yourself." He has no qualms about
expressing himself. He is not in the least inhibited.
Every human being has the mysterious something we
call personality.
When we say that a person "has a good personality"
what we really mean is that he has freed and released the
creative potential within him and is able to express his
real self.
"Poor personality" and "inhibited personality" are one
and the same. The person with a "poor personality" does
not express the creative self within. He has restrained it,
handcuffed it, locked it up and thrown away the key.
The word "inhibit" literally means to stop, prevent, prohibit,
restrain. The inhibited personality has imposed
restraint upon the expression of the real self. For one
reason or another he is afraid to express himself, afraid to
be himself, and has locked up his real self within an inner
prison.
The symptoms of inhibition are many and varied: shyness,
timidity, self-consciousness, hostility, feelings of excessive
guilt, insomnia, nervousness, irritability, inability
to get along with others.
Frustration is characteristic of practically every area
and activity of the inhibited personality. His real and
basic frustration is his failure to "be himself" and his failure
to adequately express himself. But this basic frustration
is likely to color and overflow into all that he does.
When you become too consciously concerned about
"what others think"; when you become too careful to
consciously try to please other people; when you become
too sensitive to the real or fancied disapproval of other
people—then you have excessive negative feedback, inhibition,
and poor performance.
Whenever you constantly and consciously monitor your
every act, word, or manner, again you become inhibited
and self-conscious.
You become too careful to make a good impression,
and in so doing choke off, restrain, inhibit your creative
self and end up making a rather poor impression.
The way to make a good impression on other people
is: Never consciously "try" to make a good impression on
them. Never act, or fail to act purely for consciously contrived
effect. Never "wonder" consciously what the other
person is thinking of you, how he is judging you.
If you are among the millions who suffer unhappiness
and failure because of inhibition—you need to deliberately
practice disinhibition. You need to practice being
less careful, less concerned, less conscientious. You need
to practice speaking before you think instead of thinking
before you speak—acting without thinking, instead of
thinking or "considering carefully" before you act.