We are told from an early age that a leopard can’t change its spots as a self evident article of truth.  As a professional in this field I obviously don’t see it quite this way.  Obviously we are born with a certain nature, a body and a genome that gives us a predisposition towards certain strengths and weaknesses.  We are brought up in a circumstances that gives a set of views and values, though obviously many of us rebel against those and end up in the opposite position.  As we grow up (a process that doesn’t necessarily finish when we leave school) we explore our world, experiment with different strategies, experience success & failure, pleasure & pain and all of these forge us into a particular shape.

Certainly this process continues throughout our lives, but many people tend to keep repeating certain patterns once they get into their thirties.  We can read ‘self development’ books, study and give ourselves  new and different experiences that can and will change us to some extent, but as long as we remain in the same environment, then we do tend just deve