So What Do You Want to Be or Do When You Grow Up ?

Myers-Briggs: An ABC guide for the uninitiated

So What Do You Want to Be or Do When You Grow Up ?


This is the same haunting question that we were asked when we were 7 years old in grade school and im positive 11 years on ( some maybe longer), myself and you the reader are still unsure on how to answer that question.

Im sure Einstein couldn't answer that too when he was 18

Im positive he didnt go:

"Hmm, I vant to discover the theory of relativity and make nuclear bombs"

Maybe he said this instead

" I vant to get laid "

It was probably the latter anyway ! XD

But nonetheless, the future is a very scary thing. Can you imagine, today you might be writing on your blog. 10 years on, you might be sitting on top of an oil platform drilling for black gold or perhaps going on an elevator 200 stories up (were in the future remember) to sit on your massive mahogany chair opening up your email to find out you have meeting at Mars and your company has given you their company space ship to go there. A guy can dream can't he

Ze Great Sun Tzu once said
" If you know yourself, in a hundred battles, you will never lose "

Hence, the article im writing now

What is this Myers Briggs and how does it relate to my life ?

Here is the 411 guys, basically myers-briggs designed this whole system to catalogue humans based on their preferences( ill elaborate on preferences later). How to sort out the Hitler's, Barrack's and Najib's so you dont have to go through the whole electoral process to find out. HAHA. Its a simple premise, for 18 years of living, we all have a set of beliefs or a set of preferences when we're doing something.This test will help you find out what you PREFER .Im emphasizing on this because this test will NOT MEASURE YOUR ABILITY TO DO SOMETHING. its just telling you what you like to do in certain situations and hopefully help you pick out what you might like to do in the future

To make it easy ill gave an example of one type. In the Myers-Briggs test you can get 16 different types from 4 pairs of preferences or types

Extraversion or Intraversion (Where you get your energy and how you use it )
Sensing or Intuition (how do you get information)
Thinking or Feeling ( how do you make a decision)
Perceiving or Judging ( decision-averse or decider)

Say, you did a test and your an ENTP

Extraversion VS Intraversion (Energy)

The first letter, E represents how you get your energy. An E gets his energy from his surroundings, he sees things, acts on it, reflects and then further acts on it. E's are the so called action people . The E is a jack of-all traits and master of none if you will

An I by contrast gets energy from inside, for an I, action involves an expansion of energy to the surroundings. I's typically, reflect, act and reflect some more. I prefers a narrow but deep understanding of things

iNtuition VS Sensing ( Information gathering)

Example :

You have a maths project and you need to create your own combined function

to an N he sees it as
time to create my own formula ! lets research the history and work our way up ( N like to make links between theory and jump into applications)

while an S might see it as
Lets look at some real-life applications and see how it works out ( An S works the other way around deriving from real-life to theory)


Thinking or Feeling ( Making decisions)

Example

Your the boss of a company, and you have to get rid of some workers

A T might go
What are the pros and cons ? What are cost, benefits, opportunities that await me? ( Generally T's consider the reason section first before going into human factors)

A F might say
What will happen to the morale of the company, after i fire these people ? Will the existing workers still want to stay after i fire these people ? How might it affect the people around me ( A F or feeler is empathetic and considers the needs of the people around him before considering the cost and loss aspect)

Perceiving Vs Judging ( decision-averse or resolute decision-maker)

A P is a person that likes to absorb information. If possible P's just loves to absorb information and not have to make a decision if possible. P's prefer to have an open ended approach to decision making ie. ( if you make a wrong decision, you can easily change the decision)

A J however is the more organized type. When faced to make a decision, the J faces it head on, makes the decision and moves on. J's are very resolute in their decisions and dont take a second look at it unless they absolutely have too.

Time to clear some misconceptions

#1 Just because you get ENTP or something does not mean you are forever or are one in the first place. The MBTI measures type not trait. Your preference not your nature in a situation. This personality test is very relative. Say in your family you are ENFP, at work you might be an ENTP. It all depends on the circumstance your in

#2 Just because your an E does not mean you are not an I as well. The test only measures your preference over another when your in a certain situation.If your only 55% E , your also 45% I . This nature also changes according to the situation, maybe when your hanging out with your guy mates or girlfriend your an E, maybe when your alone your an I.

#3 No type is better than the other. It may sound nice to be 1% or 5% of the population, however it does not mean anything in the real world. As an example, both the INTJ and ENTP play important roles in the society, the same as the ISFJ, INTP and the other 12 types. The J is the one good at making decisions while the P is good at creating ideas. We all depend on each other. Big Hug !

#4 Myers-Briggs stated that we use all the 4 types (Sensing,Intuition,Judgement and Perceiving) according to circumstances. The difference is which are we more confident in using.Maybe your dominant type is Extroverted Intuition. You still have your auxillary,tertiary and inferior types. In other words, if your not good at one aspect you can always improve the other to suit your needs.So for those people who keep asking

Can I Be A Doctor?
Can I Be A Lawyer?
Can I Be An Engineer?

The right question should be

What type of Doctor?
What kind of Lawyer?
What type of Engineer ?

If its one thing i learned, its that doctors, engineers and lawyers dont have a preset.It doesn't say in the Doctor's Oath that you need to score a 100% in all your exams and know how to do a heart bypass.It's all up to you to fit you into the mold. You determine who you want to be, nothing else will

Carpe Diem !!
Seize The Day



Anyone interested to find out their personality type

http://www.careertest.net/


EAZ