How we perceive ourselves becomes who we are - the part others experience. We are what we think! Scary or not. It's the brain's fault - a gooey, slimy mass of neurotransmitters. It can controls us in a negative way, if we let it.

Most of us rarely spend any time affirming the positive qualities we have, choosing instead to devote lots of effort remembering our shortcomings and mistakes.

It's time to change that pattern. Get started being a more positive person by discovering a little bit about yourself.

Complete your first fun-filled assignment, a Who Are You? Survey, by clicking here.

You also might want to experience the thrill of completing a few personality tests by checking out those found on my Related Stuff page. There are a lot of theories about how to determine one's personality. The difficult thing about analyzing your personality is considering the thousands of unique "features" that makes you - YOU. So, answering 30 question to find your personality type - while fun and non-habit forming - is not always accurate.

At a very early age - days before your first credit card - even before five years old - your little lump of personality clay was molded into what it is today. It changes over the years with new experiences and events - like elementary school recess. I remember the deep pains of rejection trying to run down the girls and get a little smooch.

Our early developmental stages were influenced by people who provided us a sense of belonging and security. Here are a few with some examples from my own file:

• Parents: Discipline or not to discipline is a big question. Not tough for my Dad though. He always boasted that I was the only kid he knew that could walk around the house once and get six spankings.
• School: Most of us went through the "Henry Ford's assembly plant" public school system. Place the students on a conveyor and poke the same information into each one. Except in my case because the conveyor didn't reach out into the hall where the teachers felt I could develop my tremendous potential.
• Friends: Fitting in with a group of peers was essential to our sense of worth and belonging. I had a good friend once, Bobby Rockama, until his mom said I was a bad influence (how was I to know they didn't want a dirt bike track in their front yard).
• Media: Yeah, 57 channels and nothing on. TV sucks. Shows and magazines are trying to program us into who we should be. At times I find myself roaming around the living room with my boat shoes wearing a white sailor's hat calling, "Skipper!"

Maybe this all results in a self-fulfilling prophecy -- where you become what you keep telling yourself (or others tell you). Regardless, it robs you of your identity. Seems like once an expectation is set, even if it's inaccurate, we act in ways consistent with that expectation.

Am I stuck with who my wife wants me to be? Definitely! But hey, you didn't marry her - I did. You're not stuck with who you are. The key is to target changes you want, devise a plan, and get on with it. Even my short temper can be controlled if I focus on what triggers it.

We're often too busy just living but by channeling energy into making positive changes actually make a hectic lifestyle easier to survive. Being complacent of becomes a dead end street with an old dumpster of past regrets and no sense of accomplishment. Push beyond your comfort zone to get the most out of each day - and feel great about it.

Finish this section by taking your Who Are YOU? answers and re-writing them. If you have any negative answers, change them into positive ones - picturing those characteristics as you'd like to see them.

For example, I had a negative wellness habit of always slugging down toxic quantities of Mountain Dew®. Now I don't drink it anymore - finding a light pilsner really makes the day more manageable.

Be sure to finish up your Who Are YOU? answers before going to the next unitI'm OK and You're So So.