What’s Your Personality Type?
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Today I have a special treat for all of you.
I’m going to share a resource that will allow you to take a deeper look into your personality, and will provide a tremendous amount of clarity on your identity.
Sound like something you might be interested in?
Behold, the MBTI test!
I won’t bore you with an in-depth explanation of the mechanics of the test and how it works. If you’re interested, please click on the Wikipedia link above for a detailed description of all that fun stuff.
Instead, let’s dive right in and get our hands dirty!
Taking and Interpreting the MBTI Test
To take the test, please click here. Answer each question as honestly as you possibly can. Choose the answers that best describe you as you are right now, not the answers that describe who you’d like to be in the future. The more accurate your answers are, the more accurate your results will be.
Once you’ve finished the test and received your results, click here to read a detailed description about your personality type. If you answered all the questions on the test to the best of your abilities, the accuracy of this description may blow your mind. I freaked out because mine was spot on.
The Personality Page also has in-depth personal development tips for each of the types. After reading the general description of your type, click here (scroll down) for a better explanation of your strengths and weaknesses and how to work on them.
One last cool thing the site explains is how your personality type influences your relationships and the way you treat others. It provides a tremendous amount of clarity on why you act the way you do towards your friends, family, lovers, and children. Please click here (scroll down) if you’d like to read further on this subject.
My Personality Type
I’ve taken the MBTI multiple times over the past 2 years, and my result has only changed once during that time. The first time I took the test my result was ESTP, but every time I’ve taken the test after that my result has been ENTP. The first result was inaccurate because I didn’t take the test seriously, and I failed to put the required thought into my answers. When I read the personality type description of ESTP it didn’t sound very accurate, and I unfairly decided the test was a terrible indicator of my personality type.
Six months later I decided to give the test another try, just for fun. This time my result was ENTP, and after reading the detailed description of my type I was amazed at how accurately it described my personality.
Since then I’ve been taking the test every 6 months, and my result hasn’t changed at all. Given the amount of growth I’ve experienced over the past two years, I think that’s pretty incredible. To read more about my type, you can click here.
Making the Most of Your Type
I’m writing this section under the assumption that you’ve already taken the test and read the detailed description of your type. If you haven’t done either and want to keep reading, be my guest. But be warned, some of this terminology may seem a bit cooky to you!
I’ve found that the understanding of my dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior functions has given me a substantial amount of clarity on where I need to direct my future self-improvement efforts.
For example, my dominant function is Extraverted Intuition. This means my primary mode of living is directed by using my intuition to interpret the information I take in from my external environment. I’m exceptionally good at doing this, and often times I’ll see connections and patterns in my environment that many of the other personality types miss.
Sounds like a wonderful superpower to have, right? Wrong!
This strength is a double-edged sword because of its dominant nature. Unchecked, it could turn into a personal development block by taking over my entire personality. As a result, my auxiliary function of Introverted Thinking and tertiary function of Extraverted Feeling would be overshadowed, creating an imbalance in my personality.
Such an imbalance would lead me to act on my intuitions without thoroughly thinking them through first. This could cause me to put myself in tough situations with problems I would have foreseen had I taken the time to think through my intuitions.
This imbalance would also prevent me from properly weighing other people’s feelings, and I could come across as cold and insensitive to the people who matter most to me in my life. In the worst-case scenario, I may be perceived as so inconsiderate and hurtful by my loved ones that they leave me altogether.
Totally NOT cool.
I’ve spent a great deal of time strengthening my Introverted Thinking function, and I feel like I’ve finally gotten it down. I used to jump from “brilliant” idea to “brilliant” idea without giving the consequences of my choices much thought. However, these days I’ve settled down, and I now think through potential ideas and their consequences much more thoroughly.
The strengthening of my Introverted Thinking function is actually the reason I came to the realization that sharing my personal development insights with others is the right career path for me. Without developing this function I would have never come to such a realization, and I would still be jumping around between potential career paths.
I’m now shifting my self-improvement efforts towards developing my Extraverted Feeling function. I am aware that I am extremely weak in this area, and I’ve started to use my newly developed Introverted Thinking function to help me understand the way my actions affect the feelings of those around me. It’s definitely a work in progress, and I’m confident that in time I will acquire the required amount of understanding necessary to make this shift possible.
Until that time, please forgive me if I’m unnecessarily cold or inconsiderate towards your feelings! 
Develop Your Subordinate Functions
Choosing to develop your auxiliary and tertiary functions is one of the most important undertakings you can commit to on your personal development quest. By doing so, you’ll become a more balanced individual, and will gain control over your rampant dominant function. You’ll gain the ability to strengthen your weaknesses, and further strengthen your strengths. Your auxiliary and tertiary functions will begin to shine, and you’ll unlock access to abilities you never knew you had before.
The MBTI test, coupled with the information on The Personality Page, will give you all of the tips, suggestions, and clarity you’ll need to make this happen.
I love to see the look on people’s faces after they complete the test and read the detailed description of their results. It’s always a look of amazement and satisfaction. Since I can’t see your pretty mug through my computer screen, I would love if you share what you think of the test and your results in the comments section below!
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I first took the test more than a year and thought it was inaccurate. I brushed off the whole MBTI test, until I took it again a week or two ago. I got ESTP. Then I took it again today to make sure I’m still getting the same result, and I did. I think it’s very accurate and also very important to look more into your type at the links you already provided: http://personalitypage.com/portraits.html and http://personalitypage.com/personal.html Also, it could help to retake the test after some time has passed in case you’re like me and your answers may change slightly.
Haha, I happen to be an ENTP too! Nice article. Here is another good website I use to test people for myers-briggs type.
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
The other site you mentioned is good I just like this one better.
Cheers,
Jeremy
@ Kevin – I’m glad you decided to take the test again, and that you took the time to read the more in-depth explanation of your type at The Personality Page. Your recommendation of retaking the test after some time is a great one, because like in your case, it could be inaccurate the first time, but much more accurate the next time.
@ Jeremy – Haha, I’m not surprised that you’re an ENTP also
Thanks for the excellent resource. I’ll use it to verify my type YET AGAIN!
Thanks for the great comments guys!
Great message!! I am an ENTJ as it turns out. I am anxious to check it out again in a month or so. This certainly is a great too to help you learn the different area you can work on personally as well as assist you in dealing with others.
I read parts of a book a few years ago about personality types, I found it interesting, but extremely boring. This was much more interesting. Thanks for all the link! Keep it up my good man. Hope you had a great holiday.
Joe – ENTJ = The Executive. You seem like the type! Thanks for the compliments, and I’m glad you found the information useful. I look forward to hearing about your results again in a month.
I took the test and it nailed me! Too bad I am an ENFP and I work in the engineering department!
ENTJ is what I got. Had never done this personality test before but it seems to be quite accurate. I am a big follower of the DiSC profiling method in my work.
Thanks for the link though Rahul and article on this. It was definitely useful!
Same name weird… But seriously, I just stumbled onto your site and have to say I am happy somebody is looking within to understand the outside.
But, these tests are standardized models set forth by a transcendentalist who in a way belittles our unique status as humans who are not algorithimic objects broken into 16 classes. Just my two cents. What do you say?
Hi Rahul. Hmmmm .. looking at the comments so far seems that most bloggers are E .. which I guess is not surprising. I buck the trend as an I.
I did MBTI many years ago and came out as INTJ … and the J part didn’t fit so well. Just did the one linked into your post and .. came out as INTP which is much more accurate! Definitely an I not an E. I think I just answered from a place of greater self awareness than when I did it before.
I use these kind of tests quite a lot in my personal development workshops .. but over the last few years have come to see that they are helpful to get people some insights … but are limited. I don’t want to pigeon-hole or trap people into thinking ‘this is me!’. For example, I recognise myself as predominantly I (get my energy from within) but there are times when I’m E and getting energy from others. I’m constantly changing and not static (even though some things about me may have some predictability).
Thanks for sharing .. well written and thoughtful. Ian
@ Carthic – I’m glad you found it to be so accurate. I’m not sure that it’s a bad thing you’re in the Engineering department.
@ Mike – I have never heard of DiSC, I’ll have a look at it. I’m glad you found the article insightful, and that it was accurate for you also!
@ Rahul –
Cool that we have the same name! I agree with what you’re saying here, and I don’t think that anyone who takes the test should think to themselves “This is who I have to be for the rest of my life.”
There’s no way a test like this could explain a person’s entire state of being, we’re way too complex for that. However, I do believe it can raise our level of self-awareness to a degree, and we can use this information to help guide the direction of our self-improvement efforts in the future. I don’t think people should walk around saying, “Hi, I’m an ENTJ! Love me or hate me as I am, because I’m not changing.” to every new person they meet.
We are all unique in our experiences and personalities, and it wouldn’t be right to think of ourselves as strictly one of 16 types. However, like I said before, if understood within the proper context I’ve found the test can be helpful in determining where to allocate my self-improvement efforts.
@ Ian – Awesome! Very cool that the results are more accurate this time.
It’s extremely important that the people who do take this test understand that it is in no way meant to be a limiting exercise or process. I agree with what you’re saying here, and the results should be taken with a grain of salt. They aren’t absolute, and as you demonstrated, there are many times when you are more (E) than you are (I). In fact, I’m like 50.5% (E) and 49.5% (I).
After you take the test, you get percentages that indicate the balance of each of your functions. For example, in your case you may be 52% (I) and 48% (E) (or something along those lines). In that case, the results are indicating your PREDOMINANT mode of obtaining energy is through introspection, but there are many other times that you obtain energy through extroverted means.
Supposedly Jung said that if anyone was 100% Extrovert or 100% Introvert, they would belong in an insane asylum. I found this fact to be interesting.
Thanks so much for the comments and compliments guys!
Agreed my friend. We will talk again!
Rahul .. in fact 75% I …. so it’s pretty strong in me. Took me quite some years of personal development before I would ever have considered commenting on blogs in such a public way! The more I do it … the more it feeds my Extroversion … and funnily enough, the more secure I am in my dominant Introversion!
Ian,
Wow, I can see how it would be tough to overcome such intense introversion. Great job working on yourself to overcome the limiting aspects of introversion, and celebrating your extroversion!
My type is type is: INTJ – “Mastermind”. Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population.
As if I would not already know that
ENTP yet again, my friend. I agree with other Rahul to a certain extent though; I think the test loses some of its predictability when one is so close to the line in nearly every category. E – 55% N – 50% T – 57% P – 84%
Myrko – it sure seems like that’s what you’re doing with your blog
Super cool, man. If you get the chance, read the more in-depth description of your type. I think you’ll be amazed at its accuracy.
Venu – I’m not surprised that you got ENTP again. You’re a “visionary” through and through.
Thanks for the comments guys!