Self Awareness

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius

Although Confucius was a very wise man I think before you take that first step on any journey you need to first work out where you are, and where you're heading. Otherwise you'll set off in the wrong direction.

So the first posts on this blog are going to focus on helping you understanding your make up and motives. Followed by working out where you want to get to in life and ways of structuring your goals and the steps towards them.

Where to start...?

Well lets start with a few psychometric assessments - and first up my personal favorite the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment.

This is designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions, and builds on the theories of Carl Jung. Jung proposed the existence of two separate pairs of cognitive functions:

• The "rational" (judging) functions: thinking and feeling
• The "irrational" (perceiving) functions: sensing and intuition

Jung went on to suggest that these functions are expressed in either an introverted or extraverted form.
From Jung's original concepts, Briggs and Myers developed their own theory of psychological type, described below, on which the MBTI is based.


When our minds are active, we are involved in one of two mental activities:

• Perceiving - Taking in information.
• Judging - Organizing that information and coming to conclusions.

There are two opposite ways that people perceive:

• Sensing - Those who prefer Sensing Perception favor clear, tangible data and information that fits in well with their direct here-and-now experience.
• Intuition - In contrast, those who prefer Intuition Perception are drawn to information that is more abstract, conceptual, big-picture, and represents imaginative possibilities for the future.

There are 2 opposite ways that people judge:

• Thinking - Those who prefer Thinking Judgment have a natural preference for making decisions in an objective, logical, and analytical manner with an emphasis on tasks and results to be accomplished.
• Feeling - Those whose preference is for Feeling Judgment make their decisions in a somewhat global, visceral, harmony and value-oriented way, paying particular attention to the impact of decisions and actions on other people.

...and there are 2 opposite ways we focus our mental energy:

• Extraverts - focus more on the external world of people, experience, & activity.
• Introverts - focus more on the internal world of ideas, memories, & emotions.

The permutations of these four preference dichotomies result in 16 personality types that form the basis of Myers Briggs model and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI inventory.

First Letter: E or I	Which is your most favored Energy Source?
Second Letter: S or N	Which your most favored Perceiving Mental Process?
Third Letter: T or F	Which is your most favored Judging Mental Process?
Fourth Letter: J or P	Which kind of mental process leads your Outside World Orientation?

To work out which of the 16 types you are here's a quick test:-
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Now with most of these types of test, it will only tell you what you have told it, and how you're feeling or whats going on around you can alter the result.
For example I tend to fluctuate from an ENFP to a INFP depending on what kind of day I'm having in work.
Everyone is different and these are broad categories, and a bit of fun, to really start you thinking about your personality and what motivates you.

Once you've done the test check out some funny descriptions:-
http://www.xeromag.com/fun/personality.html

For the rest of the week I'll continue with posts around Myers-Briggs and how the personality types can be used to look at careers, dating, motivation etc etc...