Embracing Your Personality

My son is very interested in the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator. This is a personality test that shows how you perceive the world and how you will most likely make decisions, all based on a series of questions. There are many ways to take this test. I like http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp. There is also a good one at http://www.25quiz.com/. Basically you are typed as four different letters – either an E (extrovert) or an I (introvert), an N(intuitive) or an S (sensing), an F(feeling) or a T (thinking), and a J (judging) or a P (percepting). The web sites above can give you all of the details of what each category means, as does Wikipedia. I love personality tests. I guess I’m always trying to find myself, and then when I do, I think it’s funny.

I am an INFP most of the time. Occasionally I test as an INFJ, but I think I do this because society really wants us to be J’s. I have adjusted to society’s demands and developed my J side in response to these demands. You see P’s fly by the seat of their pants. J’s are the ones who are always on time, who plan things, who are organized and structured. J’s are the good employees and the good students. P’s are the ones who like surprises and don’t really know what is going to happen tomorrow. P’s will plan as a means of security. That is what I do. I plan to make myself feel safe and to have things to look forward to. I’m usually on time like a J, but I stress a lot to make myself be on time. I don’t think a true J would stress over it; I think it would come naturally to them.

So, when I realized that I really was a P deep down inside, I decided to embrace this facet of my personality. It’s okay to be a bit “flighty,” as I was called as a girl (“free-spirited” is what I like to be called now). You should be proud of your personality type – rejoice in it. Find the good things of your type and feel pride that you are like that. Everybody was made in a different way, and the world needs all of those different types. No one type is any better than any other type. P’s need J’s, and J’s need P’s. That is how I came to tell my son that I have decided to embrace my P-ness.

Say it out loud. I said it several times before I realized why my teenage sons were snickering every time I said it and telling me not to say it again.

But I say, go ahead. Embrace your P-ness, and whatever else you want to embrace – as long as it makes you happy and lets you know that you are wonderful just the way you are. 