Just for fun. If you could reinvent yourself and your life...

[LadyLothbrook]

Just laid up with a blinding cold so thought I'd start thread asking if you could be any other personality type, who would you be? Please no comments about why would you wanna be anyone else, accept who you are etc etc because this is just for fun. So I'll start. I would be the quiet, artistic type living in a coastal town and happy to keep myself to myself and have effortless style and interior design skills. As it turns out I'm not artistic at all and drama seems to stalk me due to my dysfunctional family. Anyone else fancy being someone else sometimes?

AlphaBravoCharlieDeltaEchOFoxt

So sceptical!

I'm just being honest @LovelyMondayMornings!

Oh OK Alpha. My mistake, I forgot why I left Mumsnet in the first place

I always liked the idea of being an interior designer too, even though I am not naturally artistic.

I would also be able-bodied, a fabulous cook, have a cottage with a lot of land, a dog, several cats, a live-in housekeeper, a gardener....and have lots of picnics using a picnic hamper

@35andThriving sounds perfect to me if I switched the cats out for dogs.

I would live with my family in a very rural croft type place in the North. perhaps Scotland or in Scandinavia somewhere. I would be slim, wear Scandi and Fair isle type sweaters and spend my days around an aga and baking. I would homeschool and start my evenings with a glass of homemade beer before serving up a nourishing meal that my family actually eats. I would earn a living writing (and this would be effortless).

I think we do have some control over our lives though?

So living in a comfortable house in rural scotland in the middle of forest, spending my days crafting, yoga classes, walking in the woods and making lots of money selling my crafts.

Except that is my life.

LadyLothbrook, glad you liked it

Good for you, speakout. It does sound like a lovely life.

I would buy a penthouse in Salford Quays and work behind the scenes in TV

I would be a writer and live in a cabin by a lake with a mountainous view.

I'd like to be remote, no pressure, fresh air and by myself.

The complete opposite to my real life

These sound lovely. I agree, we have some control. But some hurdles prevent us from living the life we desire, be it financially or family circumstance or just plain old personality. I'd absolutely love to change my personality, I'm such a people pleaser and I know that can be so irrating for some as it even irritates me

LadyLothbrook I agree we can have some circumstances in our lives that we can't change- I have challenges too.
You can change destructive thought patterns and behaviour.

I was brought up to treat myself like a doormat, to put others, particularly men first. To be a good, quiet , "nice" person.
It did not serve me well. I met abusers, and I was hurt many times.

I have grwon so much, and I am no longer a people pleaser. I am altruistic, loving, but no longer to my detriment.
Therapy, self discovery, shadow work, all helped.
Explore the idea of th Mother Wound- Bethany Webster has some great youtube videos.

@speakout thank you for the advice. Really helpful. I'm going through a dark period in my life where I'm trying to understand why I am the way I am. Alot of it stems from childhood trauma so I feel cheated out of the person I could have been. I'm still full of cold today so will be checking out youtube, Thank you 😊

I’d want to live in a cottage on the edge of a windswept cliff, where I’d wander around in a long frock waiting for a fit man on a horse to find me and fall in love with me.

My kids sometimes tell me that I’m psycho or that I’m embarrassing, and I often wonder if I am or if it’s just because I’m older.
I’d like to know if I am so that I can actually do something about it, but how do you change your personality 🤷🏼‍♀️

I would live a million different lives if I could!
I'd be a showrunner living in a swanky LA loft apartment, writing horror and living on ramen. Or maybe I could sail around the world helping to save the oceans with charities like Sea Shepherd.
I'd buy a little house on a huge plot of land and open my own animal sanctuary and take in every animal that needed me.
I'd be a sculptor making things out of clay, scrap metal or whatever I could get my hands on. I'd be a neurosurgeon in Tokyo, a surf instructor in Australia, a novelist in Scotland...

LadyLothbrook

Who you are is not "set"- we can all grow, change and transform

I'd just travel around and be completely nomadic and not reliant on anyone. Lots of friends all around the world but tethered to no one. I'd probably be a writer which I'd manage with minimal effort, and could do from anywhere as long as I had a laptop. Maybe I'd live on the beach in Kerala for a few months, then head to New Zealand for a bit, chill out in Belize, change it up and spend some time in New York and then across to northern Norway for awhile. Who knows. I wouldn't stay in one place for long. I'd do lots of hiking and meditating. And pick up lovers along the way, which would be intense and passionate and short lived because the horizon always beckons

The last line in the book the Revenant gave me shivers: "He raised his eyes to a horizon carved from snowy mountain peaks, virgin white against the frigid blue sky. He could climb up there if he wanted. Climb up there and touch the horizon, jump across and find the next." That's what I'd want.

Right, now back to my real life where I need to put the shopping away, repot a dying plant and pick up some flea treatment
Yes we can shape our lives to an extent but I'm getting nowhere near that one while I have young kids.