While I do believe in them, I tend to shy away from things like personality tests, astrology, psychology – pretty much anything that claims to tell you who you are – because I have an inclination to think people are just people and I’m just not a normal person. That’s why, when I took one such personality test based on the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) theory on a whim a few weeks back, I was shocked at not only the results but how I felt about them as well. After answering a little over 60 questions (don’t worry – it doesn’t take too long!), I was told I have an INFJ personality type – the rarest in the land.
Upon reading that only about 1% of people share that same type, all my feelings of “why am I so different from other people?” (aka “why am I so weird?!”) finally made sense. I actually started to cry. Not like a sobbing sad cry. Just a small moment of tearful relief. I’m not weird. I’m just me. There are other humans out there whose personalities are the same as the one I’ve been trying to ditch for years and, more importantly, I have a few pretty awesome qualities that I shouldn’t be suppressing. And after all this time of feeling like I need to change who I am – to be someone else entirely – in order to be the best version of myself, I realized that working with my personality instead of against it is the best thing any of us can do.
A more in-depth description of the test is available here, but it basically provides you with a 4-letter code that indicates whether you are introverted or extroverted (I or E), perceive information by sensing or intuition (S or N), make decisions based on thinking or feeling (T or F) and take action based on judging or perceiving (J or P) along with a full description of your personality type based on that 4-letter combination. As was the case in my experience, you may find yourself feeling super validated and left with a better understanding of what makes you tick. Those feelings and that knowledge can provide you with a lot of possibility for self-development as well as self-love – and who doesn’t want that?!
If you’re up for it, you can find the test on this site or this site. I took both (about three weeks apart from each other) just to be sure even though I knew INFJ was eerily accurate when I read through the first test’s description. Even if your results don’t bring you to tears (I told you – I’m weird), I still think it’s a fun way to get to know yourself a little more. I made Ella, Danny (Ella’s dad) and my mom all take it recently and the results were spot on for them as well so I’m officially onboard with personality tests – the Myers-Briggs kind and this one at least. I also think MBTI type tests would be an amazing addition to workplaces everywhere so that companies can encourage and better utilize their employees strengths rather than expecting every person to learn and perform every task in the exact same way. But I suppose that’s a rant for another day…
So now it’s your turn to learn a little about yourself, feel a little more validated or just have a little fun! And if you do take the test, make sure to come back and comment below to let me know how it went!! xx
Jen says
I took the test a while back but took it again just to see. Some questions were hard for me to answer, not sure if I was just thinking too much into some. I got ISTJ for one and ISFJ on the other one, so I guess pretty similar. I’m more of an introvert which makes sense but have to read the other parts haha. These things are always interesting to me-while I don’t believe in horoscopes either II kinda think there is something to the zodiac signs, but then again you could probably find its and pieces of yourself in any of the signs. This was fun to do again, thanks for posting on this!