My personality, my achievements

Goal-setting is an important issue for life planning because it is a great way to set your priorities so that you get things done. Goal-setting itself is fairly easy. You simply decide what you want and write it down.

However, achieving that goal can be more difficult as life, the world, the people around us and even our brains, get in the way.

If you set goals according to your personality type and align your priorities, preferences and tendencies in line with your character, then there will be less resistance against the work you have to do and improve the success rate of achieving your goals.

But if you are or have struggled with setting goals and wondered, “What’s wrong with me?” take heart. Once you know your personality type and own up to your inherent strengths, weaknesses and preferences, you can modify standard goal-setting to suit you better. In doing so, it will propel you toward success.

Personality profiling can help you better understand how your natural behaviour and personal tendencies influence everything to do with your life and what you want to achieve with your life.

It is through recognising and accepting our imperfections that we can identify areas of our beliefs, behaviours, actions and skills to improve upon so that we can achieve the outcomes we ultimately desire. It is by developing our weak areas and improving ourselves that we can grow as human beings, positively making a difference in this world and living purposeful lives.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is a self-assessment tool that you could use to understand your personality type within the context of goal achievement.

MBTI measures four pairs of opposing preferences, which are inborn and value-neutral, to form a person’s four-letter type.

• Favourite world – Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
• Information – Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
• Decisions – When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
• Structure – In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

The result is one of 16 different personality types, like an ISTF or ENTP, that best describes your preferences.

The MBTI instrument sorts for preferences and does not measure trait, ability, or character. It is only a guide to help us navigate through life especially in terms of understanding yourself and appreciating the differences between people.

It does not define us to the degree that we can be limited by those parameters. You can ‘fit’ into one personality type more than all the others, but the type is not all you are about.

Ultimately, you alone are the best judge of your personality type and the preferences you live by. You are then required to form your hypothesis as to who you are, your overall type and to compare this against the reported MBTI type. The degree of ‘fit’ will vary.

As all types are equal, there is no best type. The results should not be used to label, evaluate, or limit yourself in any way.

If you already know your MBTI personality type, it would not hurt to do the self-assessment again to confirm your understanding especially when you have taken the assessment some years ago.

Take the assessment here and insert your MBTI personality type letters in the table below.

Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
Extroverts focus more on the world and people around them.		Introverts focus on the inner world of ideas, thoughts, and deliberations.
Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
A sensing person prefers to have objective information.		An intuition person prefers to work from a subjective impression of a situation.
Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
A thinker always follows the technically correct course of action.		A feeler takes people’s feelings into account.
Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
A judging person is more comfortable in a well-ordered, structured environment.		A perceiver prefers the spontaneity of a flexible lifestyle.