How the Knowledge of Your Personality Type can Improve Your Life
In this article, I talk about how knowing your personality type can help you have better relationships, work better and also reach your goals in a way that works for you. So have you ever settled down to think about your personality type? Well, I’m here to give you a reason why you should.
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By the time I left the University, I was facing some conflict as regards who I really was. Sometimes I would exhibit some traits that deep inside of me, I felt like that was really not me. But at some point I had to stop and ask myself:
“Well, who am I?”
I needed a guide to make me understand that my core personality traits were, and my answer finally came to me when I attended a Leadership Seminar where I was given the Myers-Briggs personality test questionnaire to fill to paper. According to this personality categorization (Myers-Briggs), people fall under one (or sometimes two) of 16 categories of personality types. I don’t intend to talk about all of them, so you can read them up later if you’re interested.
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Long story short, I am an ISFP, which means that I am Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceiving. Just so you know. But hey, that’s just me. You could fall under this or any of the other 15 personality types. But let’s talk about the real stuff, that is, how to use the knowledge of your personality type to reach your goals. PS I will be making reference to my personality type (ISFP) for better understanding.
1. It gives a clue to your best career or passion
Myers-Briggs personality types are usually side-tagged with their most dominant characteristic or the vocation or career that would suit them the most. Or maybe a word that best summarizes all of their traits. For ISFPs, we are called “The Artisan”. This is because we mostly enjoy building things of our own which we find appealing, and we love to work by ourselves. Knowing this helped me a lot in school because everyone around me always believed that I was too smart to work with my hands. And I used to think I would end up working in one big firm and work my way through the ranks. But somewhere along the line, that dream just didn’t feel right anymore. I had developed a flair for craft and I was confused about what passion to pursue.
When I knew my personality type, I developed more confidence in my artisan qualities. I began to try more things and eventually honed my skills long enough to decide that I would be a shoemaker. But that’s just me. I am not saying that you must follow the career that your personality type recommends. I’m just saying that it can help to serve as a guide for you if you’re stuck or don’t even know where to start from.
2. Knowing how to act around others
So when it comes to personality, we usually already know two major classifications which are the Introverts and the Extroverts. Introverts are known to be more withdrawn and get more energy from being alone while extroverts love to be around others ad draw energy from being social. Now, the reason you should know your specific personality trait from the Myers-Briggs scale is because it will help you to know the exact kind of Introvert or Extrovert you are.
Personally, I’m an introvert that is very impulsive and may even sometimes enjoy the company of other people for prolonged periods. But I still get drained from social settings sometimes, so I need to withdraw from time to time and reenergize while being alone. By understanding this, I know that when I get tired of being around others, it’s not because they did something wrong. I just need to pull back for a while and clear off my head.
As a result, I don’t have to get moods swings around my friends that may make them feel bad. I just take a break when I need to, so that whenever we get to hang out, I would be comfortable seeing them and wouldn’t feel too socially congested.
3. It helps you know the best way to work
Let’s face it, some of us hate our jobs not because of the job itself but because of the environment. Some of us might want a quiet place where we tap at our laptops without a colleague swinging the door open in the next two minutes and asking for a favor. And for others, our offices may be too quiet and void of social activity, making us bored and less willing to work. But there’s a reason for this.
The problem in scenario one is usually more akin to introverts, while the problem in scenario two is more likely for extroverts. This is just a broad example, and there are more peculiarities involved as you know your specific Myers-Briggs personality type. But how can this information help you?
Well, it can help you by knowing what adjustments need to be made in your working environment so that you can get more work done. In extreme cases, this may even mean quitting your job, but that’s up to you. Or you could ask your boss for an adjustment in the working environment, like for introverts that love working alone, you could ask for a space where you won’t be disturbed for certain hours of the day if possible. And yes, not every boss may be willing to grant this privilege at first. But remember that it will increase your productivity and contribution to the firm.
And for those who work alone or from home, in many cases, it’s much easier to handle this adjustment yourself. The most important thing is first of all knowing what works best for you, and finding a way to implement and stick to it.
4. Knowing what flaws to actively correct
The three other points I have spoken about are ways to make your life better, and this point is equally if not even more important. You cannot become a better person, have better relationships and work, and even achieve your goals if you don’t improve yourself. And the basis of self-improvement is to know what isn’t working and correct it.
All personality types have basic flaws that are akin to most individuals in that group, and for the ISFP, some of ours includes our love for perfection, our high sensitivity and our impulsive nature. Loving perfection tends to cripple us from even trying because we feel we won’t be good enough. And perfectionists don’t do well when it comes to failure, learning and growing. We need to let this go by embracing our flaws and just getting the job done the best way we can at the moment.
As for being too sensitive, we just tend to take things a little bit more personally, and criticism could be an ISFP’s worst enemy. The solution to this is that when people criticize you or your work, just take it as their opinion, and one person’s opinion isn’t a suitable judgment of your values or accomplishments.
And as for being impulsive, well let’s just say that ISFPs act in the spur of the moment. I’m a sucker for this. I actually plan and create goals, yes, but I can still be impulsive on a day to day basis. Learn to correct this by having a list of goals and action plans, and keep spontaneity to a minimum, because we as ISFPs still need that.
I know we all have our different personality traits, and I hope that you can use this article as a blueprint by knowing your own personality type and know to use it as guide to have better relationships, work better, and also know the best way to achieve those goals.
You can take the Myers-Briggs personality test here:
Thanks for reading!
