On Reactions And Personal Change

So, the adventure of how I got to where I completely changed my view of myself.

Last week at the conference we attended,  one of the sessions - a couple - did a down and dirty Myers-Briggs evaluation (For those that do not know, Myers-Briggs is a personality assessment of tool of long standing.  Your Mileage May Vary.).  It was not so much the test itself as an evaluation of you against someone you knew - for many there, including myself, my spouse.

The outcome?  For years - 35 or more - I have thought of myself as an Introvert iNtuitive Feeling Perceptive (INFP) - the creative, thoughtful, deep type (and introverted - I consistently peg the Introvert items at the end of the scale). But as we went through the exercise, there were points at which I move one way and the comment I got was "Really?  You do not act that way".  Which, of course, got me thinking about how I perceive myself and how I act.  I started to move on the continuum  less by what I thought about myself and more by how I act (which, after all, is the real indicator of things).

The result?  My INFP was more like an Intuitive Sensing Feeling Judging (ISFJ) - much more common of course (1% of the population versus 13%), but not all bad.  Just different.  Very very different from how I had perceived myself.

Yes, I know these things vary and yes, I know they are only approximations and yes, I know that they all have flaws.  But single biggest thing in making a change in my thinking was how the person that has known me for 25 years reacted to my choices.  In some cases complete agreement, in other cases complete surprise.

Enough surprise to give a man reason to reconsider.