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This is my final day of navel gazing. While I was somewhat dubious about this whole process of revealing five things about myself, I actually had fun doing it and despite being less than 100 percent physically, I sucked it up and tried to give it the ole’ college try.
Hopefully readers found something worthwhile in checking out things that were more personal and probably not terribly relevant to most of what passes for life in the cultural fast lane.
Without much further ado, here is my final revelation.
#5 I am an INTP
When I took the Myers-Briggs, I was working at Unum-Provident, hating every minute of my 9-5 gig. I had taken this job, hoping I could put in four or five years, at least get my son through college and then maybe, bail.
I was deluding myself on this one, as I was barely six months into this job when I knew I had made a terrible mistake. For one thing, the “mentor” that I was assigned for training was a narcissistic 50-year-old woman, who was going through some type of mid-life crisis and more interested in looking at herself in her mirror she kept at her desk, than making sure I knew how to perform my stupid-ass job, screwing policyholders out of their benefits. She was receiving Botox treatments and was much too self-absorbed to be any use at all to me.
Long-story short—I realized quickly that I needed to do some serious work on myself if I wasn’t going to keep repeating this scenario, over and over again.
At the time, I was taking extended lunches and driving across town in Portland and spending an hour plus at one of the branches of Maine’s best library system. I began delving into the self-help section, in hopes that I might re-invent myself and possibly short-circuit my own personal “Ground Hog’s Day.”
In the process of reading several books, some good, some very good and a few excellent, like Gregg LeVoy’s Callings, I began doing a self-assessment and hence, I took the Myers-Briggs.
While I’m borderline between introverted/extroverted, with periods when I’m definitely gregarious and an “E,” while at other times, I prefer solitude and people just plain irritate the hell out of me, which I guess is my “I” phase.
INTP’s are “providers of clarity” and we always feel the need to provide understanding about issues and the news of the day—obviously why I’ve blogged for as long as I have.
While INTP’s run the risk of being over-critical, aloof and arrogant, on the whole, real arrogance is rare for us.
INTP’s enjoy independence—we don’t enjoy being just like everyone else. We don’t enjoy being pushed to do anything and will often resist when push comes to shove.
One thing about this particular profile is that INTP’s spend a great deal of time second-guessing themselves, due to an impending sense of failure.
Some famous INTP’s—Socrates, Descartes and Pascal. Bob Newhart was an INTP, as is Rick Moranis and former president Gerald Ford.
So, five things that I’ve revealed about myself—do you think you know me a bit better? I hope so.
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4 comments:
I want to find the editor who saw fit to include Rick Moranis in that list. I typically shun violence, but perhaps some heightened teasing is in order.
I'll go back and take the test, but I seem to recall ESTP fit the bill last time I checked in ... high school, maybe. If this was a library card, it would have expired.
INTP here. Clearly more of an "I" than you, Jim, and I suspect a bit more to the T end of the spectrum. For the record, Doreen is exactly the opposite of me.
I am an INFJ.
Dottie
I am an INTP too! I think it's a fairly rare type. I consider it the absent-minded professor type, kind of it's-all-in-your-head. Sometimes things seem really clear to me, and then I realize they're all in my own head, and that if I want others to be on the same page I have to express them out loud...
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