Myers Briggs

I've been studying my temperament type. Again.

It started with a colleague at my church (where I used to be Communications Manager) asking me to test a new online course. The course is "Discover Your Design" and the goal is to help others understand how they can use their God given gifts and personal preferences within the body of Christ. How they can lead or serve- in, around and through - the local church in a suitable and satisfying way.

Part of the course includes answering a series of questions to categorize your type. The Myers-Briggs personality methodology was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers and is founded on the typological theories of Carl Gustav Jung. There's nothing superstitious here - just a categorizing of the types of personalities into which most relatively "normal" people fall.

Last year in the work environment I was ENTJ:

Assertive and outspoken - they are driven to lead. Excellent ability to understand difficult organizational problems and create solid solutions. Intelligent and well-informed, they usually excel at public speaking. They value knowledge and competence, and usually have little patience with inefficiency or disorganization.

Okay, this sentence out of the description of an ENTJ made me laugh out loud:

They find themselves in command and sometimes are mystified as to how this happened.

I keep thinking to myself, and asking my husband, "How in the world did I end up as the leader of our mixed life group?" And seemingly, the same thing is happening again with the leadership role I’m looking at for the fall.

In the last 24 hours, I've taken two different versions of the test online and have been coming up slightly different - as ESTJ.

Practical, traditional, and organized. Likely to be athletic. Not interested in theory or abstraction unless they see the practical application. Have clear visions of the way things should be. Loyal and hard-working. Like to be in charge. Exceptionally capable in organizing and running activities. "Good citizens" who value security and peaceful living.

I asked my friend to help me understand where being a Writer fits into this picture. Is it that I’ll control the world by explaining to them my position one more time??? Because if the world doesn’t agree with me about how things should be run, I’ve obviously not explained myself well enough. Hahaha.

And then I read this in the ESTJ description:

ESTJs usually feel very strongly that they are right and that if everyone else would listen carefully to what the ESTJ has to say, then they would understand the way things really are, and the world would be a better place.

That is just too funny.

If you've never done this kind of a temperament analysis, or haven't done it for a while, one good place to source out info is on Keirsey.com. Have fun - but remember it's just an indicator of preference and as life circumstances ebb and flow, many of us learn to mature into ways of managing the strengths and weaknesses of our personality type.

It's fun. And it helps me understand how to relate better to those around me. Practical. Logical. Just my personality type.