Unmasking Your True Self: The Importance of Taking a Personality Test
Getting to know your true self can be challenging. We all wear masks and play different roles – friend, partner, employee, etc. While these roles are essential, the masks we wear to fulfil them can often cover up our authentic selves. A personality test can be a powerful tool to unmask your personality traits and motivations.
Understanding Your Personality Type
Personality tests analyse your characteristics across key dimensions to categorise your personality type. Two well-known examples are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Five Factor Model (Big Five). These tests assess traits like introversion/extraversion, intuition/sensing, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. After completing a questionnaire, you are assigned a personality type that describes your innate tendencies.
For example, you may learn you are:
- An INFJ in the MBTI system.
- Meaning you are introverted, intuitive, and feeling.
- Judging.
The Big Five assessment may characterise you as high in openness, average in conscientiousness, introverted, compassionate, and calm under stress. Gaining this objective perspective on your personality can be eye-opening.
Benefits of Self-Discovery
Learning your personality type offers many benefits for self-discovery and personal growth:
Gain Self-Awareness
A personality test is a mirror, reflecting objective insights about your motivations, emotions, and behaviours. Without this external perspective, we often lack awareness of our personalities. Examining your personality test results can reveal blind spots, misunderstandings about yourself, and reasons behind your ingrained patterns.
Identify Strengths & Weaknesses
Personality tests illuminate your natural strengths based on your type’s common traits. For example, introverts often excel at independent work and deep concentration. You can leverage these strengths while being mindful of related weaknesses, like struggling in social situations for introverts. Recognising your strengths and weaknesses allows you to capitalise on your talents.
Overcome Impostor Syndrome
Many high-achievers suffer from impostor syndrome – feeling like a fraud waiting to be exposed. Personality testing provides external validation that you belong and deserve to be here. Understanding your type’s common behaviours can help overcome impostor syndrome.
Boost Confidence
Truly knowing your personality gives you the confidence to be your authentic self. You can stop exhausting yourself trying to act like someone you’re not. Appreciating your natural tendencies helps you accept yourself. This self-acceptance allows you to live authentically without inhibition or self-judgment.
Make Better Decisions
Knowing your personality type equips you to make life decisions that fit your innate preferences. For example, judges who prefer structure and closure may thrive in detail-oriented careers that allow them to utilise their love of planning and organisation. They like having clearly defined roles and tasks. On the other hand, more open and adaptable perceivers often prefer flexible work that gives them freedom and autonomy. They are comfortable with change and spontaneity.
Introverts tend to flourish in remote work or independent work environments that provide space for deep solo thinking and concentration. They draw energy from having minimised social interaction and the peace of working independently. Extroverts may prefer active team-based roles that allow them to collaborate and brainstorm out loud with others. When you have clarity on the work preferences of your personality type, you can intentionally shape your career and life around your true self. This lets you use your natural strengths while accounting for potential blind spots.
Improve Relationships
Grasping how your personality type interacts with others fosters better relationships. For example, you may understand why you clash with a significant other or struggle to see your child’s perspective. Personality testing reveals blind spots in how you relate to people with different preferences. With this knowledge, you can develop more understanding, patience, and adaptability.
Take the First Step
Uncovering your personality requires courage and commitment to self-examination. While the process can be aggressive, the rewards of living as your authentic self are immense. The most genuine relationships and accomplishments emerge from knowing and accepting your innate tendencies. Consider taking the first step by completing a personality assessment. You may be surprised by what the test reveals and inspired by the personal growth that follows.
Conclusion:
A personality test like the Jung Personality Test provides a rare opportunity to objectively examine your innate preferences and tendencies. While the results may initially surprise or even unsettle you, they offer invaluable insights to help you live more authentically. By unmasking your true personality, you can stop wasting energy conforming to unrealistic expectations. Instead, dare to embrace your natural self – you will find greater confidence, understanding, and meaning. Be patient through the journey of self-discovery, and you will emerge more accepting of your true colours.