Who do you THINK you are?!

 One of the biggest struggles we as humans will probably ever face, is ourselves.

Who am I?

Why am I here?

Where am I supposed to be?

When is my time up?

I'm a happa who likes to pretend I have long straight hair... :(

We've all asked at least one of these questions at least once in our lives. The next question then becomes, "How do I find out?" Well, I don't have the exact answer to this question, or any of them really, but I wanted to share a bit of my own experience in figuring out who I am, or more specifically,

WHY I AM THE WAY I AM.

Take this post with a grain of salt. This isn't meant to be some life-changing event or anything, but I think it's definitely a great insight into why we are the way we are. Some people probably don't believe in these things, probably because they feel limited by it. I personally find it to be a great insight into my own personality, as well as justification to feelings I've had as a child that I was never able to put into words. So what exactly am I talking about?

Well, there's two different personality systems I want to touch upon.

THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS & THE 16 PERSONALITY TRAITS
and how they are tied together

Let's start with the 16 Personality Traits. Where did I hear about this? Well, this is offically knows as the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and if memory serves, I learned about it in one of John C. Maxwell's books. If you want to read more about the origins, I'll have a list of resources at the end of this post.

Without going into so much nitty-gritty detail, I just want to touch up on the very basics (you can delve into more details at the end), and share my own findings about myself. Oh yes, another self-indulging blog post, I'm afraid ;(

The 16 Personality Traits

So what's mine?

I am I N F P (Introversion / iNuiting / Feeling / Perception), also known as the Dreamer.
Here's just a snippet of my personality type:

Super condensed INFP list

What did I learn about my personality type?

A lot.

Just to summarize though, it really justified and clarified a lot of inner thoughts I had about myself, but was too scared to define myself as (hence, insecurity). A few critical points I would like to share:

• Suffered from "Ugly Duckling Syndrome"since childhood.
• Take things personally and take criticism poorly. 
• Find more happiness in helping others at the sacrifice of my own comfort. 
• Inability to walk away from unhealthy relationships.
• Avoid conflict at all costs.

So now you have a general idea of how the 16 Personality Traits work. Let's move on to The Four Temperaments.

Basic elements of the Four Temperaments

So what am I? (Can you guess?)

Well, it's a little more tricky to define. The reason being, is you can have a Primary and a Secondary temperament. 

For me, I define myself as a Primarily Phlegmatic, but possibly Secondary Melancholic (Phlegmatic-Melancholy).

And again, a few quick points about my type (I'll identify here with Phelgmatic):

• Quick to sacrifice their own happiness to please another (just like INFP!)
• Can never say no.
• Excellent listeners.
• Lack outer expression: celebrations and griefs are usually internal.
• Extremely indecisive. 
• Prone to laziness.
• Stress easily leads to panic, fear, and sometimes tears. ← 100% ME

The really neat thing I've come to discover between these two tests, is the accuracy between them. Not only in relation to the personality quirks, but to various signs. Here, let me show you right quick:

Should I throw in my social security number too?

After a little research, I found that people born under the Water sign (Cancers, since I was born in July) are also Phlegmatics. I actually didn't know this until I looked it up just now. Just another piece to add to the puzzle, but of course all in good fun!

So now you have a little more insight to my personality. Let's get to know YOURS!

Below I've included a handful of websites I've used to determine my own personality traits, including tests and information once you've determined your own. Let me know what your results are and tell me how accurate you think it is! :)

TAKE THE TEST!

The JUNG Typology Test (16 Personality Traits)

Four Temperaments Test

SOURCES

THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS

The Myers & Briggs Foundation

KIERSEY.COM
Great insight into the relation of the four temperaments and 16 personality types

Astrology and The Four Temperaments

DISCLAIMER: This post is purely for fun and interest. I am not trained whatsoever in psychology and do not claim to be holder of any true or decisive facts on the subject matter in this post. Thank you!