Your personality is the set of traits, behaviours, and emotional patterns that make you who you are. Personality determines your career path, relationships, lifestyle preferences, habits, and income. Most personality traits are either inborn or fixed in childhood. It’s safe to say that your personality won’t change much throughout your life, but it can evolve. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, there are sixteen personality types, each with distinctive traits and cognitive functions. Knowing your personality type can help you navigate life a lot easier because every action, decision, thought, and emotion will start to make sense.
Here are five reasons to learn more about your personality type.
1. It Will Help You Make Better Decisions
The theory says that four pairs of complementary cognitive functions define our personality: introversion/extroversion, sensation/intuition, feeling/thinking, and judging/perceiving. So, if you are an INFP, your way of operating in the world is dominated by introversion (I), intuition (N), feeling (F), and perceiving (P).
Each function exemplifies a way of being. Introverts have different social needs and lifestyle preferences than extroverts. People guided by feeling are more people-oriented, whereas thinking types prefer to work with things and abstract concepts. Perceivers are more spontaneous and carefree than judgers. Learning about these different aspects that influence your thoughts and emotions can help you make decisions that align with your real needs and desires.
2. It Will Help You Make Better Career Choices
There are many representatives of each personality type in fiction and pop culture. INTP characters are quiet, hard-working, analytical geniuses most likely to invent new technology. INFJs are shy and passionate visionaries that love to work for justice and the betterment of society. Each personality type has a unique set of values, passions, and interests.
Learning more about your personality type is essential if you struggle with career decisions. Each personality type has unique strengths that are most suited for a specific occupation, environment, and workplace culture. If you don’t know what career to choose or how to advance your career, you will gain many valuable insights by reading more about your MBTI type.
3. It Will Improve Your Relationships
Your personality type says a lot about what you need and want in a relationship. For example, feeling introverts value intimate connections but don’t seek out social interactions very often. Feeling extroverts are most likely to be seen as social butterflies.
Learning more about your personality type can help you cultivate satisfying relationships that meet your deepest needs. You will realize what energizes you and what wastes your energy. Thus, you’ll be able to focus on what matters most, which will improve your personal life.
4. You’ll Gain More Confidence
Humans are social beings, so the behaviour of those around us can affect us. Seeing someone doing something differently can cause us to question our decisions and perspectives. Why am I behaving differently than everyone else around me when faced with the same situation? Why something that makes someone happy makes me sad? Why can’t I be bothered to care about the same things as someone else? Since we constantly interact with people different from us, asking ourselves these questions is normal.
Once you learn more about personality types and your cognitive preferences, you discover the “why” of every behavioural pattern. This can be very empowering. You can finally be confident that you’re following the right path for yourself. In addition, it can be a relief to know that you’re not weird or irrational. Many other people like you exist in the world. They would understand and vet your decisions because their minds work similarly.
5. It Will Help You Make Peace with Your Weaknesses
Reading about personality types will lead to a fundamental insight: no one is perfect. Every personality type has strengths and weaknesses. Some traits that we perceive as valuable have their dark side. Humans have complementary personalities, which explains why collaboration is critical for us. We each bring something unique to the table.
Learning more about your personality type is the quickest way to recognize and make peace with your failures and weaknesses. You will understand why these weaknesses exist and learn how to manage them.
Final Words
You will find dozens of personality types online, but not all provide illuminating information. MBTI is probably the best tool to use if you want an in-depth exploration of personality types and their characteristics. Discovering your type will make you see your past in a new light and envision a more satisfying future. Take the test and embark on a rewarding self-discovery journey.
