compensation

Sometimes I am able to be incredibly organized and sometimes I feel in disarray. Until recently I thought that I was just naturally an organized person, or that it had something to do with OCD. I have determined recently that I am probably compensating for something when I am being organized.

A good example of this is my inability to find anything. If Golden asks for me to help her find NJ's pacifier I will almost certainly look right at it at some point without seeing it. I think this is because something in my brain cannot process everything I am seeing. I long ago got in the habit of always placing loose objects in one of a few different locations to compensate for my inability to find things. If I can't find my keys I have about five places I can check and they will almost always be in one of those five places.

Likewise, I tend to do well if I have all of the information that I need centralized, so I centralize it. This is because if I keep on having to look up stuff I will invariably lose information or forget that I need to remember it. If I am not careful to take note of all of the information that I need or of everything that I need to accomplish, I will almost certainly forget something important that I am supposed to do.

I wonder if other people have elements of their personalities that exist to compensate for them naturally being the exact opposite of the personality quirks in question. Are some people who are outwardly confident only portraying that because it effectively hides the fact that they are clueless? Are some people standoffish because they have learned that being needy doesn't get them the affection they desire? Are some people musical or stylish or well-read simply because it is actually their natural weakness? I have to think so.