Do you find your personality type limiting or embrace it?
22 RESPONSES // asked by lovepaperdoll - around 4 weeks ago
I am at an age where I am really becoming my own independent individual and I'm am struggling with understanding myself and developing who I want to be. I have an INTJ (introversion, intuition, thinking, judgment) personality. Which means I am a very logical thinker with an overactive brain and I have difficulty understanding and expressing emotion.
That was ok growing up in a very academically driven family but now I am preparing for an art career and I struggle with a more emotional side of me that I don't know how to let out. I want to be more in touch with my emotions so I can express myself in my art and in romantic relationships. I am so in my brain all the time that it is interfering with living my life in the now and my ability to connect with people.
Have you ever had such a inner conflict? How have you adapted your personality to meet your needs? Do you fully embrace your personality?
And I mean whatever your understanding of your personality type is, not only the Myers-Briggs Types (which you can learn more about here if you want http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/)
That was ok growing up in a very academically driven family but now I am preparing for an art career and I struggle with a more emotional side of me that I don't know how to let out. I want to be more in touch with my emotions so I can express myself in my art and in romantic relationships. I am so in my brain all the time that it is interfering with living my life in the now and my ability to connect with people.
Have you ever had such a inner conflict? How have you adapted your personality to meet your needs? Do you fully embrace your personality?
And I mean whatever your understanding of your personality type is, not only the Myers-Briggs Types (which you can learn more about here if you want http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/)
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When I found out I am an INTJ, it was as if an enormous weight was lifted from me. It explained why I loved learning but hated school, why groups exhaust me and why people seem to behave like irrational children.
When I found out I am an INTJ, it was as if an enormous weight was lifted from me. It explained why I loved learning but hated school, why groups exhaust me and why people seem to behave like irrational children.
So yeah, for me it's EMBRACE, big time.
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INFP & a '4' on the Enneagram. I think these sorts of personality inventories are a nice beginning for what we can move toward. I think they are even more helpful when relating to others. When I'm aware of another's general traits, I am less judgemental when the sh*t hits the fan. Check out the enneagram if you like this kind of stuff. Much more in depth and open-ended than the Myers-Briggs.
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I embrace my personality. I am an outgoing, treat-people-right, be-nice, do-kind-things type. One might think that would be the perfect mix for a middle school counselor. That is -unless - you work for people who see silly as sadistic...and, conformity as cool. So, instead of changing my vantage point (conforming)...I guess/know it is time to go the way of whatever adventure awaits me next!
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I tested when I was sixteen and I'm pretty sure I've stayed consistent with my INFP type- as a performer people often perceive this as kind of unique- just because I am trained to perform in front of others it doesn't mean I am an extrovert. Being introspective, and questioning things, pondering- has actually made me a much stronger performer, and much more deeply creative. I don't *expect* to be noticed like extroverts often seem to. I am very methodical when I work.
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i didn't really answer the question: I find my personality type very limiting, and NO i don;t embrace it. i hate it.
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I think personality tests like this are great in a larger journey of self discovery, but I don't let it become a self fulfilling prophecy. If you can prevent it from limiting the situations you put yourself in, they can be great. It's best to use it as a means of understanding which situations might make you uncomfortable, and hitting them head on. When I learned about this stuff in college, the head of the department said that ultimately one should never feel prideful about your personality type because the goal is to be balanced across all categories. Not sure if I 100% agree with that, but it's an interesting perspective.
I think personality tests like this are great in a larger journey of self discovery, but I don't let it become a self fulfilling prophecy. If you can prevent it from limiting the situations you put yourself in, they can be great. It's best to use it as a means of understanding which situations might make you uncomfortable, and hitting them head on. When I learned about this stuff in college, the head of the department said that ultimately one should never feel prideful about your personality type because the goal is to be balanced across all categories. Not sure if I 100% agree with that, but it's an interesting perspective.
Just as an asside, I would add that another great test is the VIA Strengths Test. The goal is to find out what your signature strengths are in order to align the things you do in your life with your strengths in order to live a more meaningful and happy life.
You can find that test as well as others that you might find interesting here: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter.aspx
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I am a ENFP, but vacillate on the E these days. As a kid, I was clearly more introverted but school forced me to be more extroverted to survive. Now, older, AND having home schooled my 4 children and had time off from the traditional school perspective, I am clearly heading back toward the I.
I am a ENFP, but vacillate on the E these days. As a kid, I was clearly more introverted but school forced me to be more extroverted to survive. Now, older, AND having home schooled my 4 children and had time off from the traditional school perspective, I am clearly heading back toward the I.
I am artistic, creative, sensitive and empathetic. I need time to regroup, to digest. But I need people and activity as well.
The thing that seems to be the hardest for me with the way I am wired is that I am not terribly consistent in my productivity. I go through very focused, productive times and then I just seem to float. Yep, ADHD would fit this, too. But I see this as all of a whole. Labels don't work very well. I just have to spend time seeing what works in whatever situation I find myself in, then do my best in it.
I spent a lot of my early life being told how lazy and irresponsible I was because I am a dreamer. Now, as an adult, I really try to help kids I know who struggle with the same thing to not beat themselves up, but work with the gifts they have and are!
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i know how i act & how i am but i can not describe myself. i say i know myself but i often wonder do i really know myself. sometimes i do & say things that don't "seem like me" but i don't know the whole me yet
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I embrace myself because I know that if I don't, the relationships I make with people will be built on lies.
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I struggle with thinking that because I'm introverted, I have a disadvantage compared to extroverted people. However, I'm not willing to change that. This is what I am and I'm learning to embrace my complicated self.
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I embrace it. No doubt about it....embrace the weirdo from within...If you don't love yourself a little, who will?
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Learn to laugh at yourself. Try to know the things you dont want in your life.You are not alone with this. Enjoy yourself. Have the courage to be you.
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A couple of parallels. I'm an INTJ art student.
A couple of parallels. I'm an INTJ art student.
I've been uncompromising and unapologetic about my personality. Art's a good career for weird personalities, and besides, it seems like every artist is always off in his or her own world. Maybe we're all from another planet; I certainly don't feel like I belong here.
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First, off, why are you letting some silly test define you? and why do you choose to hit upon the negatives? or at least make positives into negatives?
First, off, why are you letting some silly test define you? and why do you choose to hit upon the negatives? or at least make positives into negatives?
"Have original minds and great drive for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. Quickly see patterns in external events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives. When committed, organize a job and carry it through. Skeptical and independent, have high standards of competence and performance – for themselves and others." where does it say here (and this is from your own link) that the INTJ personality has "difficulty understanding and expressing emotion"?
INTJ, according to even the meyers-briggs, are natural born leaders. and I can assure you that without the "ability to understand or express emotion" they wouldn't be so.
the meyers-briggs personality test was/is designed as a "guideline" for understanding how people work. but it is not written in granite. it is a tool, nothing more.
there are many INTJ personalities who are/have been quite famous: Presidents, actors, actresses, scientists, authors.
you say you are "preparing for a career in art". what does that mean? please define "art" since there is certainly more than one kind of "art". Painting? Writing? Dancing? Acting? all of those "arts" are expressive of the performers "emotions".
and what do you plan to do with that skill?
I sincerely doubt that you have an inability to either understand or express emotions. The only people that I know who indeed do not have that ability are psychopaths. perhaps what you need to do is get more in touch with yourself. and perhaps, just perhaps, art might not be your "thing"
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"I want to be more in touch with my emotions so I can express myself in my art and in romantic relationships"
