For me, it’s primarily on the contentiousness scale. My traits are so heavily weighted on the free-spirit side (loose, inefficient, slapdash, distracted, carefree, instinctive, arbitrary, etc) that it interferes with my goals: i.e. succeeding at work, completing projects, general self-discipline, etc.

How can I overcome these so that I don’t self-sabotage?

This may be part of a bigger question: why, if these traits are who I am, do I harbor the internal dissonance of wanting to overcome these? Partly I believe the answer to this larger question is that (at least for this Big 5 classification) it’s a question of life-skills: I still have to pay bills, get some exercise, eat healthy, mow the lawn, etc. I simply don’t have the natural personality to be disciplined. It feels like an uphill battle to get organized, while my general inclination is to let everything slip into chaos while I chase the latest sunbeam.

And, perhaps there’s an even bigger question: how does anyone with goals that point one way, and traits that point the other, cope (i.e. someone “abrasive” wishes to be more “agreeable”)? Is the answer “willpower”? Or is your personality malleable enough that you can use some therapeutic technique to “shift” you traits somewhat? Or do you need to simply rely on external factors, strategies, relationships to shore up your weaknesses? Or do you simply need to accept yourself as is and find the context in your life (career, relationships, etc) that work for you?