The Inescapability of Personality in Chess

Much has been written about how various famous chess players have brought their personality to expression in their games, but much less attention has been paid to how personality holds lower rated players back.  Escaping yourself is one of the most difficult things to do in life, and if the way your personality manifests itself on the chessboard gets in the way of victory, it can be hard to change. 

My personality, for example, is marked by extreme patience, so I never think of completing a task when starting it, and while that has certain benefits in everyday life, in chess playing it causes me never to think of checkmating the opponent, but only of gaining micro advantages to increase material advantage.  As a result, while I'm pursuing some elaborate plan to gain a pawn, my opponent already has three pieces bearing down on my king and the trap is inescapable.  By temperament I'm basically an accountant, not a Morphy.