“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
Aristotle
Knowing one’s own self is the first step in personal development. It is when you know yourself, what you are capable of doing, your strengths and weaknesses, that you will accept yourself. And from self acceptance comes self love.
Many people shrug off the idea of embarking on a journey of self discovery. More often than not, they see it as unnecessary. The dangerous thing is that if you fail to define who you are, people will do it for you. And you have no choice but to accept.
A lot of models have been developed by Psychologists in an attempt to classify various personality types. One of such models is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) developed by Katherine C. Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. The reason why the MBTI model is very popular in determining personality types is that hundreds of studies have been conducted and the model has proven to be both valid and reliable.
The MBTI consists of 16 different personality types that can be obtained by combining four different “preferences”, with each combination of the preferences providing a unique personality type. The four preferences are:
- Extroversion or Introversion (E or I): Do you prefer to live in your own internal world or do you prefer to focus on the external world?
- Sensing or Intuition (S or N): When analyzing information, do you prefer to focus on what you have sensed or do you prefer to use your intuition to extract meaning from it?
- Thinking or Feeling (T or F): Do you make decisions based on your thoughts, with little or no regard to emotions, or do you take emotional decisions?
- Judging or Perceiving (J or P): Do you tend to decide on things or do you stay open to other people’s views?
After you have chosen the four preferences that make up your personality, you can check out your type below:
- ISTJ– Serious, loyal, decides logically what should be done and work towards it. Loves to make everything orderly and organized – from their work to their home and life.
- ISFJ- Kind, friendly, responsible, and reliable. Committed and steady in meeting their obligations. Tend to be nurturing partners.
- INFJ- Overly sensitive and creative. They want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Tend to be conscientious and committed to their core values.
- INTJ- Highly ambitious likes to plan ahead. Have a strong willpower for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals.
- ISTP- Tolerant, flexible and logical thinkers. They therefore organize facts using logical principles. They value efficiency.
- ISFP- They are perfectionists, friendly, artistic, and creative. Enjoy the present moment, what’s going on around them. They do not like disagreements and conflicts.
- INFP- Idealistic, compassionate and loyal to their values. Want a life that is in line with their values. Curious and future oriented.
- INTP- Are shy and highly intellectual. Seek to develop logical explanations for everything that interests them. Tend to be Skeptical and always analytical. Tend to be good readers.
- ESTP- Flexible, energetic and tolerant. Focus on the here-and-now, are spontaneous and they live in the moment. They love to take action.
- ESFP- Social, outgoing, flexible and friendly. Love being the center of attention. Enjoy working with others to make things happen and they tend to make work fun.
- ENFP- Enthusiastic and imaginative. They are risk takers, adventure lovers. They have good multi-tasking abilities. Often rely on their verbal fluency to get what they want.
- ENTP- Problem solvers, explorers and are quick and outspoken. Good at reading other people but tend to ignore their feelings. They are easily bored by routine.
- ESTJ- Practical, realistic and aggressive. Make decisions quickly. They organize projects and people to get things done in the most efficient way. They are natural leaders.
- ESFJ- Warmhearted, social and co-operative. They like to make people happy, even at their own expense. Want harmony in their environment and work hard to establish it.
- ENFJ- Warm, compassionate, sensitive, and charming. Are highly attuned to the emotions and needs of others. Want to help others realize their true potential.
- ENTJ- Decisive and self confident, they assume leadership readily. They are future oriented and enjoy long-term planning and goal setting. They like to read and share their knowledge with others.
The MBTI model is just one of many that can help you gain knowledge about some aspects of your personality. Some personality tests are available for you to take online. Try out as much as you can. You’ll definitely be amazed when you find out things that you never ever knew about you!
For further reading, visit: www.myersbriggs.org
