ISTJ.
That's me. Tested, branded and herded into the corral of Guardians. In my best form, an Inspector. In my worst? A Duty-fulfiller.
The letters and labels? They're all products of research and assessments developed over the years by Isabel Myers, Kathryn Briggs and David Keirsey on the subject of personality.
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If you're anything like me, your skin crawls at the idea of being labeled or boxed into a bulleted list of traits and inclinations. In the same breath, you're a little fascinated by self-discovery (or self-awareness), so the idea of a personality assessment kind of piques your interest ...
If that's the case, I'm going to point you to Keirsey's Temperament Sorter II first (next comes The Enneagram, but we'll save that for later). Take the test (there's no right or wrong answer ... and it's FREE) and check out your results.
But don't stop there. Personality is about instinctual inclination — what you DO. It's not about your heart. It's not about character. It doesn't take into account any learned behavior or a moral compass. Who you are, how that manifests and why it matters has a solid stake in personality, but you are a complex combination of a lot of other factors as well. Birth order. Life experiences. Spiritual gifts. Brain chemistry ... just to name a few ...
It's all worth exploring ... and if you're up for it, I'd love to help you navigate!
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If you've taken a personality test, what are your letters? Was it accurate?