I thought the $600 aptitude test results were the best starting point for analyzing who I am in relation to work, but when I review what I’ve actually done with work, the more determinative my MBTI insights seem to be.

For example, while I would have placed “doing good in the world” as what is (or should be) most important to me in a job, the reality is that my current line of work – which I’ve done for years – doesn’t really further any higher societal good and is at best morally neutral, but what it does do is give me a huge amount of independence and freedom, which is totally in line with my MBTI “personality type” as an INTJ. Especially with regards to my time, there is an understanding with temporary / project work that it is not a destination for anyone but a waystation that people want to move past into a better and more fulfilling position. So my time is fundamentally my own – I just have to decide whether I want to get paid or not. With a work-from-home situation, that’s even more true.

And that’s what my personality type predicts about my preferences in how I actually function. I don’t know the theories behind MBTI but I should learn because the resulting insights are so accurate and applicable to me. After Googling MBTI, I was shocked to discover that, according to Wikipedia, “Briggs and Myers began creating their indicator during World War II (1939-1945) in the belief that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sorts of war-time jobs that would be the “most comfortable and effective” for them.”” WOW. How ironic that I’m discovering that factoid now. And note, again according to Wikipedia, neither Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers were formally educated in the discipline of psychology and both were self-taught in the field of psychometric testing. That is so cool! And inspiring!

I’m going to have to do more with this but that’s just another thing to add to the list of to-do’s I still haven’t organized yet. But at least I had one good insight today that should really help me move forward.