Isn’t it is fascinating how long it takes us to learn about ourselves?
Only yesterday I found myself looking at the Twitter profile of a virtual acquaintance who has had a tremendous impact on me. @DaveGrigger included a personality profile as part of his Twitter Biography that revealed he is an INTP. A while ago I did a free Myers-Briggs profile test and discovered that my personality profile is INFP, my particular breakdown is Introversion – 78%, Intuition – 62%, Feeling – 16%, Perceiving – 49%.
If you haven’t taken this profile test I strongly encourage you to, it is completely free and very well worth the time you’ll spend. I found it fascinating to learn that some of the things we intuitively know about ourselves are more than just in our mind.
Anyway… I’ve known for a long time that I am an INFP, but thanks to David Grigger, I revisited myself and did a little research into something I have never considered before. Simply put, the results astonished to me.
What am I talking about? About how my personality type affects my writing.
General characteristics of writers with the INFP personality profile.
First, I found the image above. It describes the general INFP writer. Weird déjà vu. I agreed with most, but not all of it. Which in itself seems to be a factor of the INFP personality. People are individuals, every single one of us. Yes, many of us do fit rather neatly into boxes – such as those defining personality traits. However sometimes we don’t, and that is okay because we’re all unique people. Just like you, there will never be another me.
Onward! A little dissatisfied with the elements on the image that don’t fit my own perception of myself, I continued my research into me. After a few false starts I found a really wonderful website called “Write with Personality”. The website is run by a lady named Andrea J. Wenger, who you can find on Twitter as @AndreaJWenger. Her site is full of amazing information. It is definitely worth visiting. Andrea’s site also happens to contain a page dedicated to me!
{Okay, okay… the page isn’t really dedicated to me, but to my Myers-Briggs Personality type. Namely the INFP. Close enough I say! :)}.
Andrea’s description of the INFP writer is insightful and startlingly accurate. Reading it felt as though someone who knew me better than I know myself had written a description of me. I learnt a lot about myself reading it, especially about my bad habits. {Yes, I was as shocked as you to learn I have more than a few of those!}
The most striking of those bad habits is how I discovered I really am unconcerned with “the facts”. To my mind, facts are irrelevant little things behind which deceitful people often hide. The facts are used to distort things as often as they are used to prove points of view. To me, facts are only important when used as guide-marks toward truths. However, it is also apparent how my disregard of hard and fast facts is not shared by the majority of humanity. I should probably work harder trying to understand why facts are more important than feelings to so many. I probably should…
After reading all about me {isn’t ourself a fascinating subject for almost every human?}, I decided to build my own image of myself as an INFP writer. The most difficult thing about doing this wasn’t being honest, which I find easy. No, it was using explicit words to describe myself, which I find extremely difficult since it feels so strongly like blowing my own trumpet.
Individual characteristics of an INFP writer, namely me!
Regardless of my discomfort, my version of my #INFP me appears above.
{PS. If you’d like to find out just how incredibly accurate the Myers-Briggs personality profile is, at least in my case and regarding my writing, head on over to the free sample of Beltamar’s War. I hope it entices you into purchasing my work!}
Tremendous!
We’re practically related (my sister is an INFP).
Synchronicity being what it is, just finished having lunch w/her & discussing our personality types & how it affects our interaction w/those that are different. In particular her new husband (ESTJ) & how extroverts have a penchant for verbosity but not the function of recollection (as we see it anyway).
It in no small way explains why i think we “connected” so well. When my sister & i are together we are a blur of introspection, insight & revelation. What a pleasure it is to be able to connect with others (virtually or in “real” life).
Thanks for the kind words & of course your written word. I’m a little better than halfway through my second reading of Beltamar’s War. And enjoying it even more than the first reading (not unlike re-watching a favorite movie & discovering things not noticed in the first viewing) which is saying a lot because i LOVED it on the first read through. Anxiously awaiting August so i may begin “The Pilgrimage”
You have an amazing way to see the heart in the matter. By which I mean you somehow look straight past the words, and see the intent with which they were written.
Same thing in your real life. You allude to how recollection differs from person to person, and in so doing reveal an insight that has long eluded me. My wife is an extrovert with an amazing memory for facts. This can be very confusing as while I seldom doubt the veracity of her memory, I also know in my heart that my recollection of things differs substantially from hers. You’ve hit the nail square on the head. She remembers the “facts”, I remember the feelings.
Another lesson of life learned… thank you! Perhaps by the time I finish I’ll be prepared for that “final exam”. But perhaps not, indeed I hope not as to me a day in which I don’t learn, is a day I don’t need to live.
Holy crap this is me to a tee!
Curious how these little realisations coincide.
As it happens exactly a week ago I chanced across a personality profile that I’d completed in 2015, and shared it with my dear wife:
“xxx: As you like to analyse my personality and motivations I thought I’d give you the result of a test I did on 17 September 2015: https://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality
xxx: You can take the test by clicking on the red block at top right. Be interesting to know what result you get now.”
And perhaps not so curious why you, C.G. Ayling, are one of apparently only 3% of the population who are likely to ‘get’ me.
Strewth! There definitely are very few who do.