Part Two: Who Am I? Typefinder

In my last post, I discussed Enneagrams, my results, and how this can be a useful tool to identify strengths and weakness. In my journey into self-analysis, I also took the Typefinder Personality Assessment, developed by Myers and Briggs. This assessment has been around since 1962, so most people have heard of it and taken it a time or two. Revisiting this personality assessment helped reaffirm my ideas about myself and explain my tendencies.

There are 16 possible personality combinations in this assessment that identifies your energy style (Introversion or Extraversion), cognitive style (Intuition or Sensing), values style (Feeling or Thinking) and life style (Judging or Perceiving).

My Type: INFJ

According to the Typefinder personality assessment I took on Truity.com, my type code is: Introversion, Intuition, Feeling and Judging. “You’re a creative nurturer with a strong sense of personal integrity and a drive to help others realize their potential. Creative and dedicated, you have a talent for helping others with original solutions to their personal challenges.”

I believe this is accurate, as I teach at-risk teenagers who often need original solutions to personal challenges. I love helping my sometimes directionless students find and realize their potential. As a mom, teacher and writer, I do love to nurture and create.

Introversion

Introverts enjoy being in calm surroundings, contemplating ideas and experiences, reflecting on thoughts and feelings, and exploring a subject in depth. With these attributes, it’s no surprise I am blogger and also explains why after a day of interacting with people in busy surroundings in my work, I just want to lie down in my quiet bedroom.

Intuition

Intuitives process information in an abstract, imaginative way. They focus interpreting meaning, imagining potential, observing patterns and connections, and innovation and creativity. I do in fact, process information in this way, and it explains my love of creative writing.

Feeling

Feelers value empathy, cooperation and compassion. They are concerned with acting out ideals, engaging emotions, considering the impact on people, seeking harmony, serving others and making authentic decisions. The fact that I chose a job working with pregnant and parenting teens reflects that I am a big feeler.

Judging

This sounds like it would be a negative type, but it describes how you manage your life. Judgers like structure and order while perceivers like freedom and spontaneity. Judgers prefer to create a plan and stick to it, see a task through to completion, set goals and maintain focus, follow rules and regulations. My closest split was between perceiving and judging, because although my preference for order wins out and I feel a little stressed when things are chaotic, I have been known to follow my inspiration.

Opportunities for Excellence:

The report outlines ways you can use these traits to excel, some of which I already do, and others that I found to be invitations to excellence. These opportunities included:

• Be an advocate for others
• Use your emotional sensitivity to maintain an atmosphere of cooperation
• Seek opportunities to use your natural insight and understanding of people
• Keep lines of communication open
• Find ways to exhibit your loyalty to people and causes that matter to you

This brings to mind my desire to serve in some capacity as a group leader or one-on-one counselor for those in recovery. I think I’m being nudged…

Potential Pitfalls:

Equally helpful to identifying strengths is being aware of weaknesses or areas of growth. Here are a few of mine:

• Become more comfortable with giving constructive criticism.
• Tailor your message to your audience; others need details and specifics in order to get behind your cause
• Don’t be afraid to manage people
• Make sure your efforts are not taken for granted. You may become resentful if you are not given the recognition you deserve.

As with the Enneagram assessment, reading about the pitfalls here reminded me how, in my drinking days, I used alcohol to avoid, withdraw, and be resentful. I gravitated toward the path of least resistance, but it caused turmoil within.

Now that I am sober, I can concentrate on finding my voice. I can give feedback to help others and take credit for my efforts. This, rather than sulking resentfully and mentally recording every “unfairness” that I perceive (perceive being the key word).

I am thoroughly enjoying this wellness journey and taking the time to dive into who I am and what I need to focus on in order to keep moving forward. I hope my transparency inspires you do do some inner digging as well.

Love and light.