Hello, INFJs!

(Credits to 16personalities.com for the Advocate image)

To start my blog, I would like to add an extension to my About Me page and talk about my personality (based on my personality test result).  I’ve taken the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test for the fourth time today.  I took it within approximately 6 months apart.  On the first 2 occasions, I got INFJ-A result and on the next 2, including today, I got INFJ-T.  So, I am, certainly, an INFJ and I belong to about 1.5 to 3% of the population (at least, of the ones who took the test). 

For me, it was always liberating to read the results and interpretation.  Even though it’s the same, each time, I kept thinking they exactly get me.  It was like reading about my zodiac sign (I am an Aries) but with more head-on, or should I say, heart-on points.  They predicted my deeply-ingrained values that I have always felt but just recently learned consciously.  They also took note of how I tend to relate with others: my husband, acquaintances, colleagues, friends and even my son.

Apparently, INFJs, whom they also refer to as the Advocates or Counselors:

Leave their mark on the world.

I have constantly pondered about my life’s purpose.  Why did God put me here?  So I consciously take on things that truly matter even in the midst of time’s trends and life’s monotony. This, I believe, is my ideal legacy, to continue to aim for things that truly matter and to inspire others to do the same.

Capable of taking concrete steps to realize their goals and make a lasting positive impact.

I thought about how I aimed to be productive every day.  Since my younger days, I feel I have always been goal-directed (concrete steps) and wondered if it was enough (lasting impact).  Do all of these point to my ultimate goal?  

See helping others as their purpose in life.

I always felt that my ultimate goal is to go to heaven.  That is why I made it a point to love my neighbor and lend a helping hand to people, whether I know them or not, in my own small, sometimes, big ways.  As with work, I am happy and content to find myself in a helping profession.  Though, I actually feel that most professions help others in one way or another, it just depends on whether one gives or takes more in the process.

Act with… sensitivity not to create advantage but to create balance.

Consciously, I always looked for ways to be fair. Whether in gift giving, time spending or decision-making. I list pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, and try to read and understand why people do what they do.

Need to remember that while they are busy taking care of the world, they need to take care of themselves, too.

In the past, I have tended to put others’ need in favor of mine. I know better these days and put conscious efforts at making sure that I meet my needs first to be able to give more to others. As the popular saying goes, love yourself first.

These are the overview attributes of my personality type. I, not only, identify with them but also inspired and motivated that I stand for something significant in this world.

Reading further, I might just have an idea why I gleaned T rather than A in my last two tests.  A stands for Assertive and T for Turbulent, in terms of Identity.  Assertives are relaxed and calmer people than Turbulents.  Turbulents get stressed more and tend to think of the worst.  Assertives are the optimists and Turbulents are the pessimists, in my own interpretation.  But they say that Assertives are optimists to their disadvantage since events affect them less and so they are ought to act on it less. While Turbulents get affected more, this brings them to act on it more: they roll up their sleeves and try to solve the problem.  I probably took the test under more stressful circumstances, the last time and today (The Great Quarantine of 2020), thus, getting the adjunct, T. And having undergone stress, I might have just evolved from an A to a T.  We’ll probably know next time I take the test.  It will be my fifth and deciding point.

Sorry if I have been picking up my chair for the last couple of minutes here, I am just happy to share about how this test stirs me and steers me to where I ought to be.  If you want to get inspired or at least validated, take the free test here.  And, oh, they also give you the opportunity to learn more and give steps to for you to improve.  Whether you take it or not, or whether you’re a fellow INFJ or not, please leave me your thoughts below.

Reference: 16personalities.com