Personal Identity Series Chapter 2

Hey guys!Let's keep the personal identity discussion going... So, I’ve been obsessed with trying to figure out what else is in my “ME” bucket for years. (If you don’t know what that is, read this post first.) I’ve taken every quiz, every test, every “what color do you see?” scammy B.S. you’ve ever seen to try to dig deeper into who I am, what else I might be interested in (it’s very hard for me to think about myself long enough to think about what I like, what I want, etc.), and why I do what I do. I think this obsession stems from my deep desire to find my “purpose”, or to feel like I am doing what I want or need to do- which is a HUGE problem because I have absolutely no idea what I want to do or how to figure that part out either. While on this seemingly endless journey, I’ve come across a few personality tests that I have found really interesting and helpful in identifying aspects to my personal identity that I was unaware of and helping me to sort through what is in my “ME” bucket.The first personality test I’ll talk about is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). There are 16 outcomes for the test. Each is made up of a combination of 4 different letters that stand for a word. The first letter of the 4 letter code is either an E or an I, standing for Extroverted or Introverted, respectively. The next is an S or an N, for Sensing or Intuition. The third letter is either T or F- Thinking or Feeling. The final letter in the 4 letter code is J or P- Judging or Perceiving (I’ve also seen it as Prospecting). The test that I like isn’t the *true* MBTI, it’s a free one, and it also has an additional letter after a dash at the end- A or T, Assertive or Turbulent. I’m not going to go into what all of this means, but I will tell you that when I took the test, I came out to be an INFJ-T. Diving deep into the results of this test had me shook, guys. It was bizarre how closely they described me. I always knew I was an introvert, but I learned what that actually means from my results.  I had Derek take the test and he came out to be ENFP-T, and his results were very accurate as well. Now, sometimes the results may not seem super closely related to how you perceive yourself, or the personal identity you already hold for yourself and that’s okay! Younger people’s results might possibly change as they get older and come into themselves more. If you are stressed while taking the test, that can also potentially alter the results. And sometimes people are right on the edge between two results and taking the test multiple times can flip flop you between a few different outcomes.The main way I’ve used these results is to work through possible deeper rooted meanings behind why I made some decisions I’ve made, to test out different career paths, to predict how I’ll respond to certain situations, and to just get a better idea of my personality and how it fits in with the people around me. It’s extremely difficult for me to think about myself or my wants/needs, so reading about the category of personalities I feel describes me really helps me to come to terms with the way I respond to certain things. Reading these results helped me to see parts of my personal identity that I knew were there, but maybe I was too afraid to acknowledge them or didn’t know enough about myself to be able to ask for help in those areas. It also gave me ideas for hobbies I could pursue and new ways to describe parts of my personal identity! Anyway- enough rambling! Here’s the link to the test if you’re curious! https://www.16personalities.com/Comment below what your results are, and after reading through them, let me know if you think they fit with who you think you are or not! Stay tuned next week for another post!Love,Jess