Bookish Personality Tag

At the beginning of the year I took some time to reflect on my one word (thanks to Sheila @Book Journey) that would help guide me through this year.

I chose GRACE.

And I have struggled ever since.

I have been ungracious. I feel like everyone has been in my bad graces and I’m only getting by in the real world thanks to the conventional social graces. There has been nothing amazing or otherwise about my year so far.

I am aware of the religious connotations for the word grace, but I have never been tempted by any religious belief. I believe that we save ourselves, that the gift is life itself and that compassion, kindness, love, mercy and forgiveness are choices we can make for ourselves. I understand that many people need to explore these ideas within a religious framework. Whatever works for you. But it’s not for me.

I have discussed this quite a bit with Mr Books of late.

I should note that he does not experience me as being ungracious, ungrateful or permanently irritable. He sees me struggling with stuff, but thankfully, I don’t seem to take it out on the ones I love.

Which is when I realised that I needed to connect the dots inside of me. It’s time to bring all the pieces back together, that somehow, somewhere along the way, dispersed into a million fragments.

I need to slow down – especially my mind. It goes off in hundreds of directions at once, all the time! It’s exhausting.
I struggle to live in the now as I’m always forward planning and worrying about things that might happen.
I need more time in nature. The sound of wind in the trees, the feel of grass or sand under my feet and the smell of earth, beach and forest has always made me feel better.

Instead of rushing through my local parks and reserves, busy on my phone or thinking and feeling too many things at once, I could try embracing the Japanese idea of shinrin-yoku.

I stopped writing in my personal journal years ago – it might be time to start again.

And other than writing here, I don’t do anything creative anymore (unless you can count Instagram as being creative).

I used to garden, cross-stitch, knit, dance and sing. I used to love cooking (until I had fussy teenagers to cater for). It’s time to rediscover my creative side.

One of the blogger things that caught my eye this past week is a Myers Briggs Personality Test Book Tag! Really! It’s a thing!

I’ve dabbled in Myers-Briggs testing ever since I first got online. I have done the test on various sites at various times in the past 18 yrs. The majority of the time I come out as an INFJ.

I’m curious enough tonight to see where this might lead.

Jillian @A Lady: A Reading Journal started me off, but you can trace the meme back to Emma @Bookish Nights and Bella and Olga and Maya and so on!

Like Maya, my personality type has changed a couple of times. One time my test result was INFP, another time it was INTJ. But most of the time it has been INFJ. Tonight, using this test, I once again came up INFJ.

Fluctuating, some might say, inconsistent, results such as these have been seen as deficiencies in the Myers-Briggs test. Many psychologists prefer The Big Five Personality Test. Having done both, there are enough similarities between my results for me to feel confident in accepting my INFJ label.

FYI – my Big Five OCEAN results show that I am 68% open, 85% conscientious, only 40% on the extroversion scale (i.e. introvert!), 78% for agreeableness and 48% neurotic.

Which brings us to the questions for this meme…

What is the Personality Type INFJ?

The INFJ (Advocate) type is apparently very rare – less than 1% of the population – which appeals to my need to be independent and might explain my lifelong belief that no-one really understands me!

Advocates share a unique combination of traits: though soft-spoken, they have very strong opinions and will fight tirelessly for an idea they believe in. They are decisive and strong-willed, but will rarely use that energy for personal gain – Advocates will act with creativity, imagination, conviction and sensitivity not to create advantage, but to create balance. Egalitarianism and karma are very attractive ideas to Advocates, and they tend to believe that nothing would help the world so much as using love and compassion to soften the hearts of tyrants.

Advocates find it easy to make connections with others, and have a talent for warm, sensitive language, speaking in human terms, rather than with pure logic and fact. It makes sense that their friends and colleagues will come to think of them as quiet Extraverted types, but they would all do well to remember that Advocates need time alone to decompress and recharge, and to not become too alarmed when they suddenly withdraw. Advocates take great care of other’s feelings, and they expect the favor to be returned. Source

And…

INFJ’s place great importance on having things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between their inner and outer worlds. Source

 What is My Personality Like?

‘They have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families, but doubts that they are living up to their full potential.’ ✓

‘But when the circumstances are unavoidable, they can fight back in highly irrational, unhelpful ways.’ ✓

If I were a character in a book what would my strengths and weaknesses be?

Which authors share my MBTI?

I searched high & low for a source for this. Let me know if you know.

If I were a character in a novel what job would I have?

What personality type would complete my OTP?

When it comes to romantic relationships, Advocates take the process of finding a partner seriously. Not ones for casual encounters, people with the Advocate personality type instead look for depth and meaning in their relationships. Advocates will take the time necessary to find someone they truly connect with – once they’ve found that someone, their relationships will reach a level of depth and sincerity that most people can only dream of.

INFJ is the cat – just in case you were wondering!

Who are some fictional characters that would complete my OTP?