Personality trait (or "character flaw") that you were able to overcome?

[TabulaRasa]

Being a poor planner/multitasker and being disorganized in some contexts. I'm still not amazing, But I've greatly improved in terms of setting up systems and making modifications that help me in these areas where I'm not great.

Becoming a parent really forced me to work on those skills. Nobody pointed it out to me, I've always known it.

[KathrynAragon]

One problem I had, I managed to overcome in one fell swoop and the results were so encouraging that I've managed to retrain myself and apply what I learned in that one instance for the rest of my life (thirty plus years after the event, so I think I've got it pretty well nailed). And I am not going to take credit for this as if it took a lot of strength because the initial event was so eye opening to me that I've never looked back. I was amazed at how easy things became after one very daunting lesson.

I was not born with a particularly great skill at organization. What I COULD do was think quickly on my feet, so I lulled myself and others into a false sense of confidence in my organizational skills. But actually - I was pretty scattered. It was like this - my house might look neat, but don't open any drawers or closets! My exterior persona and interior mindset were pretty much the same way. Calm on the outside, chaos on the inside!

Anyway, I had four kids under age 6 so I was already grappling with my lack of organization and a growing disarray in my life. Then my husband got transferred overseas and we couldn't follow for four months. During that four months I had to - by myself with four small kids (one an infant) - arrange the movers, arrange for some items to be put in long term storage, some in our overseas stuff that would arrive months later, some in "quick" household goods that would arrive in a few weeks, and then carry on luggage that would have to last us for several weeks.

I also had to clear our military housing, it had to pass a "white glove" inspection (as well as the yard), I had to get everyone's immunizations, line out airline and hotel stuff, and then actually get four kids, ten pieces of heavy carry on luggage, and a stroller to the airport, onto a plane, through a five hour layover in St Louis, and then onto a 9 hour flight to Germany - and arrive there alive and well.

There were all sorts of other things I had to do as well - with school records, medical records, visiting relatives since we'd be gone for several years, etc.

This was long before every home had a home computer, printer, internet, etc. If I wanted records, I had to go get them. If someone needed documentation, I had to find a place to make copies, and then deliver or mail them.

I was totally overwhelmed.

Then I had an epiphany. I didn't have to do this all at once, but I did have to do it all before we left. So I made a list of every single thing that needed to be done, and a timeline, and then I divided all those tasks up into no more than three tasks a day, I would get up every morning, do ONLY those three tasks, cross them off my list, and relax till the next morning. In almost every case, I was completely done with my daily tasks by about 10 am each morning.

This worked so incredibly well that I was amazed. It was also EASY. Well, relatively easy. So ever since then, I've applied this to my entire life. I don't have to clean the entire house - I only have to do two or three smallish things per day. I don't have to organize every drawer in the house - if I want to clean them out, I just do one a day at a time. Or one small closet, or just the shelves in one closet. I learned that things are easier if we just do them as we go along. I learned that making a list is very helpful to me. An offshoot of this was that I learned a lot about efficiency, and over the years I've become more and more efficient.

So now, I am very well organized - inside and out - but I know that I was not born with this inclination.