The shifting sands of personality

"Change your thoughts and you change your world." Norman Vincent Peale

A few years ago, I did one of those online personality tests. I don’t remember which one. I do remember the results came back as INTJ.

My parter and I recently were playing around with a few online personality quizzes, and my results came back different in 3 different tests! I got ISFJ-T; ISTJ; and one that said I was 1% more towards ISTJ than ISFJ.

While I know the disclaimers of the tests – they are for fun, they are an average, they are only partly accurate, etc. – this was still a little surprising as I’d rather liked the INTJ moniker. And being in my late 30s, I thought my personality was somewhat fixed by now. I thought these are the lemons I’ve got to make lemonade with.

When I took the test a few years ago, I was just a few months out of a relationship I’d started after my divorce. So I was likely a little depressed and lonely. Could this have influenced my results? Intellectually I’ll agree that our attitudes, life situation, and mindset might play a role in how we interact with the world. There is some stubborn part of me that wants to insist that I am constant and my behavior is not at all influenced by external or internal circumstances.

If I’m being really honest with me, I know that the quality of my heart does translate into my actions. It is likely quite a different experience to talk with me when I’m anxious and self-conscious instead of relaxed and joyful. Live and learn!

These are two of the tests I tried. If you give them a go, let me know what you think of your results.

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality

Photo by me.