This post was inspired by my friend Sofie who, when I put a story up on my Instagram account pondering what to talk about in today’s blog post, suggested I looked at personality types. So here we are… cheers Sof! Personality types have been things I’ve had conversations with Sofie and our friend Rebecca about quite a lot over the years. We all find it really interesting and I retook my test today to talk about it in this post – I’m proud to say I’ve stayed true to myself and my personality type hasn’t changed!
Now, if you have no idea what I’m banging on about, personality quizzes are based on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This a questionnaire that, upon completion, reveals differences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The idea was developed by mother and daughter Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers, based upon the concept by Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung. Briggs and Myers published the indicator in 1944 to help women entering the industrial workforce during World War II identify what jobs would be the “most comfortable and effective” for them based upon their personality.
If you fancy giving it a go yourself, here is the link! https://www.16personalities.com/
I am an ENFP-T Campaigner which probably makes me sound like a droid out of Star Wars, but it really does make sense when you break down the code. After answering the questionnaire you are presented with a screen with a variety of polls that show you what your answers determine about you. Each of the letters in ENFP-T stands for a dominant trait I have. My screen looked like this:
So I am Extroverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Prospecting, and Turbulent which each makes sense in terms of how heavily weighted each of those polls are.
The fact extroverted and introverted are pretty well balanced reflects me perfectly. I love being in a group and meeting new people but some days I want nothing more than to be by myself. My two favourite past times are going out with a group of friends and also exploring London alone. I think that just sums me up and my results definitely prove this! The Intuitive trait suggests that I’m curious and how I prefer to use my imagination thinking about future opportunities rather than just focusing on the present. Of course, I do relish in what I experience in day to day life however I always think about how it will impact my future more.
Feeling vs Thinking is the age-old thing of ‘do you follow your heart or your mind?’ I definitely trust my heart and also my gut more than my brain as I often get wound up by overthinking so my dominant trait here is feeling. It also suggests that I’m emotionally expressive and I can’t help but agree there – I always tell someone how I’m feeling about something. Prospecting suggests I react to my environments more than I try to control them – I do well with unexpected challenges and use them to grow. Finally, the Turbulent trait is SO accurate in my life. According to the 16Personalities website, “Turbulent individuals are success-driven, perfectionistic, and eager to improve. They are always trying to counterbalance their self-doubts by achieving more.” … if that ain’t me I don’t know what is!
There is also a list of your strengths and weaknesses based upon which character you fit the brief for. On the whole, the Campaigner traits, are pretty accurate for me! Based off of my personality type, my strengths include curiosity, energetic nature, and being a good communicator – all things I pride myself in having. My weaknesses include overthinking, having a split focus, and getting stressed out. Overthinking is the root of many of my issues and that often leads to the other two traits.
In recent weeks my world has been turned upsidedown and many plans have changed. Being in lockdown has had something to do with parts of that but generally, my life plan has been thrown about in a way I both expected and did not anticipate for a second. And that is okay. I’ve been trying to work out how I’m processing this best for me in a productive way which I can grow from (typical ENFP am I right…?!). At the moment there isn’t much space to grow from it in the way I know how to because of lockdown however I’m enjoying the ‘planning stage’ as it were. April has been a really cool but weird month in my world.
Today news has broken that we are, supposedly, ‘past the peak of outbreak’ amid this pandemic. Part of me is going “I HAVEN’T DONE ENOUGH!! I WANT MORE TIME!!” but then the rest of me is like “actually, you did a whole lot in April which was special so screw that feeling!” In my journal, I write a page at the end of the month outlining how I felt the month has gone. I thought I’d used the time a bit badly and didn’t do as much as I could have, however, looking back, I hadn’t appreciated that I’ve done some pretty huge things in April. I kind of “took the month off” but simultaneously did a lot of work. I started a lot of projects which some haven’t been completed (another flaw of an ENFP apparently!) but that’s why I’m now excited for May.
Now I have the answers I need, I’m now curious for the future so am looking forward to seeing how May will contribute to my new plans which are going to be put into place. Setting up my spread for May in my bullet journal felt so refreshing. I’ve also been cleaning my room, which is a big thing for me as I am the queen of hoarding…whoops, and that feels really anew too.
Taking this personality test today has really made me smile seeing as how it explains perfectly how I feel and why my brain does what it does in our current climate. For that reason, I recommend taking a look for yourself too. Of course, it isn’t totally accurate, apparently, I don’t click with ISFJ-T personalities… that’s what my best friend Sofie who inspired this post is! But it is a fun way to try and process you as a person. In a way, that’s what many people are using this time in quarantine for so this could be an interesting activity. Let me know if you take the quiz and what your personality type is!
Stay safe and look after yourselves! ♥️
The Deskbound Dramatic 