Day 193 - ENFP

I like taking personality tests, because it gives me insight into myself.  I’ve always been an introspective sort, and so the ability to see more of me is an exciting and challenging prospect.  Now, for the longest time, I thought my drive to look inside was so that I could better shape how I portrayed myself to others, and in some ways, that is true.  But once I started paying attention to the results as information for me and not as personal critiques, I found some valuable information.  I’ve also seen the wonders of transformation and change at work.

As long as I have taken the Myers-Briggs, I have scored as an introvert.  Some other things have shifted slightly, but that has always been consistent… until yesterday.  For the first time, I scored as an extrovert – 52%, but an extrovert nonetheless.  Now, since THE conversation a couple weeks back, I have been feeling different, and I even told one of my friends that I feel like I may have just been a scared extrovert all along.  To have it confirmed in the test shows me that change is possible.  It also shows me that your environment can shape and create things in you (i.e. responses to life and situations) that go against who you actually are. 

I said all of that to say that at the core of our being is a person.  It’s possible that I will continue to walk the line between introvert and extrovert, but what I’m discovering is that there is more to me.  As an ENFP, I have seen that some things that are part of me are just normal parts of my personality.  And not only that, it assures me that I’m not all by myself in the way that I think and act.  I appreciate that this helps me to better understand myself, but at the same time, I’m wise enough to know that there’s no category designed that can define or completely encompass me (or any other human being). 

So, get to know yourself.  That’s the best way to love yourself.  Even though these tests can’t tell you all about yourself in your entirety, they can help you be aware of things that you might not otherwise see or know, and they can help explain some of why you think/act the way you do.