Why Knowing Your Personality Type Is Important (By Aaron Hays)

Most people have a general indication if they're shy, outgoing, daring, charismatic, etc. However, I would venture to say that the average person's knowledge of their personality type and characteristics are not all that well developed. I have always been interested in people and sociology in general, but my eyes were really opened a few years ago.

Several years ago at my company, we took the famous (or infamous) Myers-Briggs Personality Test. Surprisingly, I'd never heard of the test before. Upon taking it and seeing my results, I was stunned. It practically nailed me to a tee. I answered the questions honestly, and I got a very accurate result. I literally couldn't believe how well it described me. After this, I set out on a quest to read more about my particular personality type, and found out the underlying reasons why I acted certain ways in certain situations. I realized that there was nothing "wrong" with me, and that certain characteristics were just manifestations of my personality type. I found out that my personality type enjoys change, hates routine work, and loves motivating people. This explained to me why I detested a construction job I had for a few years, and why I was certainly not cut out for it. Additionally, it gave me several career ideas as to what best suits me.

What was equally surprising was having family and friends take the test. I found out that about 7 out of 8 of my closest friends shared the same personality class as me, despite being a small percentage of the population. That we all fell into the NF "Visionary" personality group. I have since gotten much better at "typing" people and discovering their personality types. This explained exactly why I didn't connect with some people nearly as deep as I do with others. Perhaps this has been more of a revelation for me than most, but I've been fascinated ever since.

I have also found this key in relating to others. If you know that your significant other has a personality type that will shut down when being criticized, then you know that jumping into a confrontational argument will be counterproductive. This has greatly helped in the workplace too. When entering a meeting at work or on a conference call, I have a tendency to want to ask the other personal how their day has been, or how they are doing in general. I had previously always thought it somewhat rude when people just jump right into work with no pleasantries beforehand. Now I'm aware of the fact that they're not rude, but they just simply care about the work at hand.

After having most people I know take these personality test to better help themselves, I decided to just finally create my own website about it (PersonalityGenesis.com). I truly hope others find this as helpful as I do.

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