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I get this question a lot – sometimes asked with confusion, sometimes with cynicism, and sometimes with enthusiastic curiosity. The people I most enjoy working with end up as curious and enthusiastic folks, whether they started there or not.

Here’s what I have to say in response:

1. Learning about your personality type can help unlock your feelings

The key to finding your passion is opening up to feeling. Passion is, after all, just a strong emotion. So many of us are closed off to it, and other emotions as well. Have you been criticized at work? Up goes a wall to your emotions. Have you been belittled at home? Another wall. Do you try to be like someone who is your complete opposite? Another wall. Eventually, you find yourself closed off not only from hurt, guilt and anger, but from passion and happiness as well.

When you learn your personality type (and here’s a quick quiz if you have no idea what it might be), you start to accept your differences between yourself and other people as just that – differences. Not weaknesses (though sometimes they are), not character flaws, not something you’ll “have to work on” – just differences. With acceptance of those differences, you don’t have to shield yourself so much from the comments of others. You can filter out the feedback that’s valid and toss out the remarks that used to be hurtful and keep you up at night.

Once you open yourself up to feeling again, you will find more and more that brings you excitement, joy, and passion.

2. Learning about your personality type helps build your confidence

The flip side of not having to defend yourself so strongly against those who notice your weaknesses is that you can have more confidence in your natural talents. So many of us discount our natural gifts. Doesn’t everyone come up with creative solutions for problems? No, they don’t – that’s often an iNtuitive (N) trait. Doesn’t everyone keep things organized and controlled? No, they don’t – that’s often a Judging (J) trait. Can’t everyone strike up a conversation with strangers and help them feel comfortable? No, they don’t – that’s often an Extraverted (E) combined with Feeling (F) trait.

Knowing your natural talents gives you more confidence that your “superpowers” aren’t just everyday common tendencies. They are part of your DNA, and you can develop them into strengths that other people don’t have. What’s more, when you do this other people recognize and applaud you for the things you love to do! How cool is that?

3. Understanding yourself and accepting your natural tendencies will allow you to find your passion more quickly.

When you are in touch with your feelings and have confidence in your natural abilities, you will find the road to finding your passion a lot easier to travel. You’re not fighting your weaknesses, and you’re aware when you start doing something that makes your heart sing. Pay attention to that feeling, and nurture it. It will lead you to your passion.

Your Turn

For further reading about talents linked to personality traits, you can read my pages on:

• Talents of directive, extraverted (ESTP, ESTJ, ENTJ, ENTP) types
• Talents of informative, extraverted (ESFP, ESFJ, ENTP, ENFP) types
• Talents of directive, introverted (ISTP, ISTJ, INTJ, INFJ) types
• Talents of informative, introverted (ISFP, ISFJ, INTP, INFP) types

What natural talents do you have that you haven’t seen as strengths before? What have you been defending yourself against that you can now let go? Have you found your passion through personality type? Tell me in the comments!

Photo by jakeprzespo on Flickr

Here are some benefits of the MBTI assessment to consider:

1. When it’s used correctly, you get a description of all the types – not just your own

When you take a free quiz online or from a book, you are alone in assessing your own results and interpreting how others might score. When you take an MBTI assessment from a certified Myers Briggs professional, a key element of the assessment is an explanation of each preference spectrum. This explanation provides many “Aha!” moments – not only in understanding yourself, but in recognizing how the preferences might explain the behaviors of other people in your life.

2. You get confirmation that you aren’t alone in how you act and react

If you grew up in a family with types very different from yours, you might feel as if every behavior that feels natural to you is wrong. This often happens with children who have strong Perceiving (flexible) preferences growing up in a family with strong Judging (organized) preferences. If you are strong on the Perceiving scale, you might have received messages that you’re a complete flake, or that people can’t take you seriously, or that you are too scattered. If nothing else, the type report assures you that you are completely normal and, what’s more, there are millions of people in the world who share your flexible nature!

3. You get an objective framework for viewing people in your life

Do you have a co-worker who nitpicks every new idea or whose first reaction is to say why it won’t work? “We’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work because …” or “That isn’t the way we do things around here” or “You can’t just …” might be phrases that appear often in meetings with your team.

Instead of reacting personally, with type knowledge you can recognize the traditional, conservative tendency of a teammate with strong Sensing (focused on what is or was, and what can be proven real through the senses) and Judging (organized and structured) traits. Once you recognize the pattern of a Gold, you can begin to understand that they aren’t trying to squash your ideas. They merely want reassurance that the direction you’re suggesting has a rock-solid foundation and can be trusted. This makes working with those who have opposite personality traits much easier.

4. You begin to understand why some activities drain you and some energize you

You might be very confused at your tendency to get depressed or come home drained when you’ve been working at your desk all day. Why would that be? Don’t most people around you talk about getting more energy after coming in on a Saturday because they can get so much more done and get energized again? Does it make you feel like there’s something wrong with you?

There isn’t anything wrong. You are likely an Extravert who gets energized by interacting with people or situations in the outside world. They are likely Introverts who gather energy from time spent reflecting and thinking. Neither is better, it’s just that the types differ in how they refuel.

5. You can use your personality preferences as a guide to finding your strengths

As you read through your assessment results and discuss them with your certified Myers Briggs consultant, jot down those sentences that spark a realization of “Yes! People are always saying that about me” or “Oh, that’s funny. My boss just congratulated me last week on that trait.” Go through each trait that your assessment suggests, and list them along with examples from your life that relate to that natural talent or trait.

Maybe you prefer iNtuition (looking toward the future and what could be) and Feeling (making decisions based on your own idea of what’s “right” and how others will be affected). You notice during the assessment that some of the other traits of your reported type are the ability to constantly produce new ideas and the ability to motivate others. Suddenly you remember how your coworker vented to you yesterday. Today she said that having you listen, be encouraging, and offer several alternatives really helped her break through a challenge.

With a little thought, you can work that into a strength statement that you can weave into job interviews and talks with your boss. Suddenly, you find that you are earning a reputation for doing those things well. Best of all, they are activities that you love and that come to you naturally. Eureka! Suddenly, your life feels much more enjoyable.

Your Turn

Learning about type, your own and others, can be of enormous benefit in helping you build a life you love. If you want to take the Myers Briggs assessment and find your strengths, I am certified to offer and interpret the assessment. Just contact me to get started.

Have you taken the MBTI? If not, why not? If so, how did it help you? Share your thoughts in the comments.