I'm not distinguishing artificial vs. natural -- I'm distinguishing conscious vs. subconscious. You should be careful about what you consciously try to be, and

I'm not distinguishing artificial vs. natural -- I'm distinguishing conscious vs. subconscious. You should be careful about what you consciously try to be, and make sure if you go through the hard work of changing your personality, the changes are unambiguously positive. Your subconscious, your identity, and the cultural beliefs society has loaded you up with may be wiser than you think. (There are lots of positive changes that you should consciously strive towards -- being more focused, more in control, kinder, less neurotic, etc. etc.) If you tinker with your personality to gain more of what you think you want -- wealth, status, etc. -- it can bring you farther away from what you really want out of life, and it can be hard to undo your changes. Few of us in society today are actually in touch with what we want at the deepest level of our soul. So when you try to "be" something new, make sure it's not conflicting with what your soul actually wants. That sounds hippie dippie as hell, but I think it's actually very real and it's a big problem, especially in fast paced, modern society.