Is Our Self Perception always Accurate?

The other day while at Borders, I cracked and bought this book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159562015X?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=159562015X”emStrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths./em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=159562015X” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / I generally shop at Amazon but I had read about this book and online test to determine one’s strengths and thought I would try it out–for academic reasons, of course. If I don’t know my strengths by now, something is probably wrong–but I like tests like this and thought it might be fun.br /br /The book is a small hardback that has a sealed envelope inside with a code–good only for one test (great marketing ploy) at a href=”https://www.strengthsfinder.com/”strengthsfinder.com./a The test, it states, is about 35 minutes and then you use the book as a guide to understanding your various career and other strengths. It’s an easy test asking the user to agree or disagree with a series of statements. br /br /Shockingly, I came out as a “Relator” –defined as someone who enjoys being with people, mainly close friends, and talking about ideas. Funny, I have always considered myself more as a loner, so I was sort of surprised to see this. This got me thinking about how many of us view ourselves in a way that may not be accurate. The angry loner thing for me was something I carried with me since I was a child. It was easy to tell myself that being an angry loner was the reason people didn’t like me and that there was no reason to try. Yet, over the years, I have found that my perception of myself as an angry loner is not really accurate, I actually like being around people to some degree–if they are people who like ideas and facts. I still don’t like the idea of caring if people like me or not, but I do care if the people I like or care about, want to be around me. br /br /What about you, readers, have you ever had a perception of yourself as X, but found out with time and experience that you were not really that way at all?