In this episode, I share how your personality can provide insight into your preferences and influence your potential.
In the previous episodes, we have talked about seven key areas on the wheel of health. The unique way you approach any of these areas will largely depend on your personality which influences your preferences and potential.
There are several personality typing systems. The ones I am most familiar with are The Enneagram, Clifton Strengths Finder, and Myers & Briggs. Myers & Briggs is the test I have personally found the most helpful.
Personality typing is not about painting yourself into a corner or having an unyielding expression of your label. It’s helpful because it can provide insight into why you think, feel, and act the way you do. It can explain why certain scenarios are energizing and others exhausting, why some tasks are effortless and others like pulling teeth, and why you get stuck and how to get unstuck.
When you have deep insight about yourself, your self-care is spot on, you are savvy about doing more of what you enjoy, and you know what to avoid so you don’t burn out.
For example, according to Myers & Briggs, I am an INFJ which means I have a preference for introversion over extroversion, intuition over sensing, feeling over thinking, and judging over perceiving. These four pairs of preferences combined differently make up the sixteen Myers & Briggs personality types. For me, this means I know that as much as I enjoy socializing, ultimately I need to recharge by being alone. I prefer to be strategically oriented towards the future from the information I have gained through intuitive insights and find it harder to be present in the concrete now. I am more concerned about how a given situation feels to myself and anyone else involved than I am about “cold, hard, facts.” I like to have my space tidy and organized and I prefer decisions to be made rather than “waiting to see.” For me, all these elements combine to make me highly sensitive to nuances in my environment and in others, deeply empathetic and compassionate, and highly organized and systemized. I use all this to work and play from my zone of genius daily. I also know taking very good care of myself is non-negotiable because I am prone to burning out quickly and becoming overwhelmed with sensory information.
I believe life is about doing what you enjoy which usually means doing what you are good at. Yes, it can be helpful to know your weaknesses, but why torture yourself when someone else who is naturally better than you and enjoys doing the things you don’t enjoy can do them?
Remember regardless of what personality label you sport, you are still 100% unique. Your DNA, environment, preferences, relationships, personality, and more all make you who you are. So be you. Do what you love and find ease and effortlessness in the way you care for yourself in all seven areas of health.
Resources used for this episode:
Yours In Health,
