Why Knowing Your Personality Type Can Create a Fulfilling Life, Part 2

Embracing your own authenticity doesn't mean you're sacrificing acceptance from others. It's indeed quite the contrary. You're instead opening doors you never knew existed. Doors full of life, love, and companionship.

~Tricia Daye

As discussed in Part 1, our personalities dictate how we interpret and interact with the world. Most often, these responses are so natural that we don't even recognize their uniqueness among the people we interact with on a daily basis. In fact, most people often operate within their own bubble that they forget others are likely interpreting and interacting very differently with the same stimuli.

This same sphere of existence can also leave us feeling down about ourselves when another person tackles something we perceive as unnatural or hard with ease and carefreeness. Or it can cause us to feel mediocre or stupid following an unpleasant engagement with another person. 

These realities can be remedied by better understanding our personalities and respecting our strengths (and weaknesses). As an added benefit, this understanding will help us recognize the characteristics of others so we can decipher the best way to interact with them.

A win–win. 

Why it's important to learn about your personality type 

Simply put, if everyone tried to fit within the personality expectations placed on them, especially in a square peg-round hole situation, the world would be a very narrow, chaotic, and miserable place. The world truly needs the authentic you. 

But more importantly, your sanity depends on it.

By first knowing who you are, then embracing your unique, innate gifts, the world you live in becomes a beautiful well-oiled machine, car, or canvas… (you pick the analogy that fits). 

This acceptance, in turn, allows us to experience the right careers, passions, relationships, and adventures. A reality that can be coined as 'personal life success.'

Success comes in many different shapes and sizes. Still, one thing that stabilizes 'success' regardless of outside chaos is being comfortable with who you are as a person. Your essence. Your strengths. Your weaknesses. Your drive. Your values. A comfortableness that is not impacted by the tampering of external influences. 

Avoiding the negative talk

Spending years moving through life self-chastising and wondering why you're not good enough at a task, why you're scared of change, why you can't seem to organize your life or time...and so on, can wear on a person. 

It can make people feel like a lesser person. Lesser citizens. Inferior parents, bosses, and friends.

Well, that can't be further from the truth. The fallacy here is that we spend so much time comparing what we don't innately have within ourselves to the strengths of others that we begin to wonder:

"What in the world is wrong with me?" 

"Why can't I just do it?"

"Look, I'm studying all of the tricks of the trade. I bought the workbook and attended a workshop... Why am I not getting it?"

Counteracting this internal talk boils down to a shift in learning to speak the correct internal language and taking actions that fit how you personally operate. 

Why you’re exactly what’s needed

According to sites like 16Personalities and Myers Briggs Foundation, 16 different personalities (aka, us) are running amuck each and every day, wanting to better ourselves but often seeking advice from someone who doesn't know how to speak our '4-letters.' 

We all have powers to lean on - abilities that can help us expand and grow. The key is to use our powers in a manner that makes sense. A person who is a natural butterfly should use different time management methods than a logical fact-based thinker. Or, better yet, one thrives in spontaneity, and the other thrives in consistency, respectively. 

Both are wonderful. Both are needed. And both can flourish in a partnership that doesn't prescribe forced fakeness. 

Case in point - think about all the times someone has said something about your strengths. "Man, I don't know how you speak computer. I'm not techy at all." or "How in the world are you so organized? I feel like I'm barely holding it together." or "I can't believe you can just up and move across the country; I could never do that." 

Sound familiar? These traits, skills, knowledge, characteristics, and personalities are so ingrained in us that we forget to dissect them and figure out new and exciting ways to bring them to life. 

But, more importantly, how to not dishonor them by trying to conform to someone else's patterns. 

Why it's important to learn about the different personality types

Most of our daily existence is somehow intertwined with others – work, errands, family, entertainment - and if we have a foundational awareness of each personality trait, we'll likely have a better life experience. 

When looking at the breakdown of the U.S.A.'s personality percentages in Part 1, the country is in a 50/50 split regarding two polar opposite ways of operating. One half has a more rigid decisive thinking mindset. The other has a more fluid approach. 

While there are spectrums of each, there's a 50% chance that you'll interact with someone who approaches things in a very different manner than yourself on any given encounter. 

Talk about challenging communication. Possibly miscommunication. 

Opening the door to understanding personalities allows us to make a baseline interpretation of someone's reactions or expectations without needing to know them on a deeper level. Helping us avoid these needless moments of poor or miscommunication. 

For an added boost, doing family-wide or work-team-wide typing is incredibly valuable for bringing harmony to the group. 

Tip One: Don't take yourself at face value (until you've mastered the understanding of who you are).

Once you determine your personality type, you can begin dissecting your self-expectations, self-judgment, and self-love, which allow you to recognize where you're authentically you or trying to force something you're not. 

Tip Two: Understand when you should tap into your less dominant trait and when you should walk away.

We're all capable of tapping into our less dominant personality traits. Some may be harder than others, but they're there. However, don't do it at the expense of your sanity and only implement it on an incremental basis rather than as a daily expectation. 

For insight into what change methods could be most beneficial to your personality type, head to Part 3. It’ll highlight a blend of both your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to building a new habit through the goal-creation process. Happy reading!