Myers Briggs. My head is spinning right now. Think of those dots that dance beneath your eyelids after you've stared at a bright light for several seconds. All the letters denoting the various personality types are currently doing their own jig in my mind. Sixteen different personalities in the world. And which one are you? Curious? Visit www.bloginality.love-productions.com (I swear, I was not surfing the web for matchmaking/singles sites. I swear!). Or visit www.personalitypage.com, and on both of these sites, you'll find links to taking the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test. I highly recommend it partly for fun and partly to see what your intrinsic traits are when you are forced to choose between two realms of thought. I'm going to create a thread on the members' board for us to talk about our personality types and see if we agree with what the test spits out at us. I wavered a bit on just one of the areas, but I'll wait to discuss that until I start the thread.

I took the test my first week at work. Nothing like already facing a test during my first baby steps into the corporate world. I didn't like the questions. No, let me rephrase that. I didn't like my multiple choice options. Vanilla or chocolate? Black or white? Day or night? One or the other? I have close to zero decision-making skills and tend to like the response, "Both, please!" I'm always afraid that I'm missing out on something else if I choose one option as opposed to other (and it doesn't matter which option I choose, I still think I'm losing out on some sort of experience either way; if I order vanilla ice cream over the chocolate, I spend my moments of licking the vanilla treat thinking of what the chocolate would have tasted like, and vice versa...I'm a nightmare to deal with...lol!).

Anyway, I struggled through the test, my pencil wavering back and forth between the A bubble and the B bubble on my test sheet. I must be honest and tell you that I knew the purpose of the test as soon as I read the first question, but I tried desperately to not put too much cognitive thought into which bubbles to darken on the answer sheet. See, I remember a testing experience in seventh grade (that seems soooo long ago...oh no! Old age is setting in! Lol!) when I took a career aptitude test. I desperately wanted to be a lawyer (don't ask), so every answer of mine to every question on that test was skewed to make the results demonstrate that I clearly needed to move into lawyerdom (I learned to steer quite clear of any thoughts of law school later in life while working for the Texas Law Review during my college years). When the results came in the mail, my mother took one look at the discrepancies and scolded me for trying to outsmart the test. She exclaimed, "Now we have no earthly idea what you are meant to do." And she meant it...lol! I have, after all, gone through several career paths. Again...lack of decision-making skills. Did I mention that I take after her? Lol!

This is not unlike when I would visit a therapist (oh, come on...don't snicker; I was a product of the eighties, which meant that everyone and their cats and dogs sat on the proverbial couch and discussed their childhood woes and parents' utter flaws in child-rearing capabilities to some stranger that charged a sliding scale fee). She would ask a question, and I would, in turn, sit and ponder--what answer "should" I give in order to get her to say that I'm right and healthy and the people around me have the problems. I obviously needed therapy...lol!

Oh, look what I've done now. I have totally traveled onto a tangent. Maybe my Myers Briggs Indicator can explain the intrinsic reasoning behind this. By the way (not to start a new tangent or anything; I'd never do such a thing!), what do you think of the age old "nature vs. nurture" debate? Myers Briggs relies heavily on Carl Jung's thoughts that we are born with certain personality traits, and while interactions in society can create new variables in our attitudes and our methods of tackling situations, we still have certain intrinsic qualities. This can really make one think about characters in novels who seem to be inherently evil (The Portrait of Dorian Gray comes to my mind; I'm dying to discuss this novel...if I could just figure out which box I packed that book into) or naturally good (think of Jane Eyre).

I think I'll leave you on that note and see what responses I get to this entry. I could go into a ton of explanation of all the personality types and provide lots of rhetoric of how to interpret the results, but I really want readers to go in with a clear head and not try to outsmart the test. I will say this...there is no wrong answer on the test. Maybe that's why I found such difficulty in taking it. After all, it's not wrong to choose vanilla over chocolate or vice versa. It's just a personal preference (depending on my mood, how long I've been dieting, and how badly I'm PMSing, of course; and I suppose that could go for either the Myers Briggs responses or the vanilla/chocolate debate...lol!).

Have fun! Oh yeah...I am dieting still. And I'm on a caffeine high right about now. Five hours of sleep a night require a new affinity for coffee it seems. Help!

Jodi