I have three posts that are in varying stages of completion and I just can't get excited about any of them. So I'll tell you a story this week that might become relevant next week, or maybe not.
Years ago a friend of mine told me that she went to a professional development meeting where there were about 30 other attendees. The first thing they did was take the MBTI, the test that identifies your Meyers-Briggs personality type. After they each had their type-- it's hard to believe anyone will be unfamiliar with this, but it's four letters like ESFJ or INTP-- the conference leaders went letter by letter and divided them into their types.
So the first letter is either an I or an E based on whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. They told everyone to plan their perfect weekend, then they sent the extroverts into another room. After 15 minutes or so, they reunited the group and asked what they had come up with. The introverts had each individually described their perfect weekend--take the dog for a walk, read a book, work in the garden, go out to dinner with a friend. The extroverts, with no additional instructions, had planned what they would do as a group--we'll go to a club Friday night, then we'll go on an all-day hike on Saturday, etc. I just love that.
The next letter is either S (sensing) if you perceive the world through your five senses, or N (iNtuitive) if you perceive the world more intuitively. This time they sent the intuitives to another room. Then they put a chair in the middle of the room and said to the sensory people: describe what you see. The sensory folks came up with a fairly detailed description of the height of the chair, what it was made of, how sturdy it was, how it was placed in the room, and so on.
Then they brought the intuitive people back in the room and said: describe what you see. The first response was, "I see possibility!" I love that one even more.
(If my friend told me about the final two letters, I don't remember it.) Of course no one is completely introvert or completely extrovert, and no one is completely sensory or completely intuitive. But it can be a pretty interesting way to understand yourself and others.
For the record, even though you didn't ask, I'm INTJ, although in the example of the chair, I can't imagine I would have done anything other than describe the chair. Maybe if you'd said tell me the story of how this chair got here, I would have made up something good.
It's been so long since I took the test that I don't remember exactly how it worked, but the version of the test that I took gave you back your results as a scale-- I was way introverted, and definitely on the intuitive side but not as extreme.
The next one is T (Thinking) vs. F (Feeling), and I am pretty solidly on the thinking side of that one, and I think (har) that's getting worse as I get older and more cynical. And then the last one is J (Judging, you like structure, you don't like surprises) vs P (Perceiving, you like things looser and more spontaneous), and I was almost right in the middle on that one, barely a J.
You didn't ask any of my other ones either, but I am an Enneagram 5 with a strong 4 wing, and when I worked at our local hospital a few years ago I took a workplace test called DiSC, and I was a C. The original description I got back was C for Compliant--when I told Doug, he just started laughing-- but when I read further, it turns out that C is for Conscientious, and sadly I am that. It's such a pain in the butt but it can make me a little crazy to not have all the i's dotted and t's crossed.
Hmmmm. I'm tempted to throw out my far-fetched idea for the next post just so you can have something interesting to think about. You know, I think I will because it's not really a strong enough idea to support an entire post, so just saying it is probably enough.
So, here's the idea: I've wondered for years now if the second Meyers-Briggs letter (Sensing/iNtuitive) has a correlation with whether or not having a spiritual life is important to you. Because for some people, particularly science types--who to my uninformed brain, would most likely be Sensing, and only interested in what can be perceived through the five senses-- the idea of a spiritual life is just ridiculous, a waste of time. While intuitives might be more interested in curating a life that feeds the soul, maybe sees patterns and ideas and a larger version of reality. (I see possibility!)
That's it. I can think about this stuff for hours and hours and classify all my friends. But as crazy as it may sound, understanding my personality better has saved me thousands in therapy bills, especially the Enneagram. It's just a framework, it's not magic, and as always there are people who take it way too far. But it's fascinating to me.
Have a good weekend. It's supposed to be spectacular here-- we've had a couple of weeks of rain and finally everything is green and gorgeous. There is no place prettier than Northwest Montana when the weather is good.
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