Myers-Briggs Personality - writercize #182 #AtoZChallenge

Please note the #WeekendWritercize is on hold until May. I love all the entries that come in and want to give them all the attention they deserve, and with 26 posts the month of April and nearly 2000 blogs to visit with the #AtoZChallenge, I have made the decision to place the weekly challenge on hold. Look for it to come back with a vengeance (hint, hint?) on May 6!

I do a lot of volunteer work and work on committees, and this week a discussion of the Myers-Briggs personality test came up, something I haven't thought about since my days in business school many years ago. 

The Myers-Briggs test is a personality test that divides people into sixteen (surprisingly accurate) groups. Corporations like to use Myers-Briggs to see if an employee will be a good match for a particular job, but it can also be used to understand overall strengths and weaknesses of a person and how they act in marriage, friendships, as parents, etc.

I am not sure which age a Myers-Briggs reading can be considered accurate, but I took it when I was 21 and I don't believe it has changed in more than a decade. 

Most writers supposedly test INFP, a.k.a. idealists. They are introverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving. 

Here's the short list of INFP from PersonalityPage (linked above): "Quiet, reflective, and idealistic. Interested in serving humanity. Well-developed value system, which they strive to live in accordance with. Extremely loyal. Adaptable and laid-back unless a strongly-held value is threatened. Usually talented writers. Mentally quick, and able to see possibilities. Interested in understanding and helping people"

I do not test INFP or fit the writer profile. 

I test ENTP, a.k.a. visionary, and the description fits me like a glove. Switch that I to an E, and you get a (marginal for me) extrovert, and switch the F to a T and you get a thinker rather than a feeler. 

I am a person who loves to lead, but hates to control the way people do things. Loves to come up with ideas and the plan, but balks at following through. Time and schedules are flexible; structure freaks me out. I *need* surprise and spontaneity sprinkled into my life, or I wither with boredom and a lack of inspiration after. 

For me, life is all about shades of gray, vision and connections. It's about creating something new.  I would prefer to leave the details to someone else. I also have a very difficult time finishing things that I start, and daily routines drive me batty. 

I love debate, and my closest friends often have fundamentally different ideas politically or on select social issues. I appreciate the insight and opinion they can provide to give me a glimpse of the other side. I love big ideas and piecing together different bits of information and opinions to find the story. Perhaps a reason I am drawn to journalism, where I don't have to come up with the story, I just have to uncover what is already there.

Because repetition and finishing are tough, the A to Z Challenge is truly a challenge, and I do allow myself to slip a day here and there with the promise to myself that by April 30, I will have 26 posts reflecting each of the letters, and I will have visited at least one third of the blogs listed on the challenge sign up. It is a challenge, but it is a short-term challenge, and one that I relish.

I would love to know if you are familiar with your Myers-Briggs, or if you have assigned characters in your stories Myers-Briggs. I think it would be fascinating to take characters in your novels and take the test as your character, to see where they fall and some of the traits they may express. It could give you insight that you would not have otherwise considered! 

You can take some versions of the Myers-Briggs online for free, although they are not the real deal, so it may not accurately reflect your personality. Certainly for characters in novels, it could still offer valuable insight.

writercize: Use the Myers-Briggs finding to delve into a character study (of yourself or a character in a novel). 

Please share your personal story or character study and provide a link to your blog so I can come visit! I would love to hear what you have to say

Writercizer sample response coming soon!  (Yep, that whole finishing thing ... !)  ;)  But, until I do post further, consider my ENTP description above my character study.