Know Me

I don't know if it's my inherent narcissism that drives this long-going obsession but I've been fascinated with the Myers-Briggs "Know Me" personality tests for some time. Ever sense it was sent to me in email form from a friend and I found out which of the 16 possible personality types basically sums me up to a tee (I don't really understand the phrase "to a tee" - not sure if it's referring to a golf tee, the letter "t", or tea, like the kind you drink. I went for “tee”, obviously, and I'm gonna hope that's accurate. Frankly, I doubt you know either).

My personality type is an INFP and is entitled "The Idealist". There are detailed paragraphs explaining the way I think and feel and my perspective of the world. It tells me the ways I may be misunderstood as well as the ways I misunderstand others simply because our thought processes differ. I'm told which jobs I'm best suited for,who to marry, and what kind of mother I'll be in the future. It blows my effing mind.

Then, after discussing these personality types the other night with some friends while drinking beer and being devoured by Bulgarian mosquitoes I was sent a link (on my facebook of course) that lead me to a site full of information about my particular personality type and which famous people throughout history have shared my INFP status. The majority of them were philosophers and writers. Each persons’ name and picture also came with a quote. I read them all. And noticed a theme.

The majority of them seemed like people who were interested in the meaning of life. Interested in discussing it, reading about it, writing about it, and analyzing it from every possible angle but very few were able to come up with an answer. They were ponderers. They pondered. They spoke/wrote/berated people about it. I'm also pretty sure they were all narcissists as well. Makes sense. We ponder our own genius (whether or not it actually exists) and that leads us to firmly believe that we are, in fact, more interesting than everyone else. And then we write about it.

One of my friend’s personality types was given examples such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ronald Reagan. Those people probably weren't narcissists. That's because one of their major traits is to be interested in people and the human condition and not themselves. I bet Mother Teresa falls under that list too, just to rub it in.

I'm not saying that all I do is think about myself. On the contrary, I'm always thinking of ways to better myself, to encourage others to see and act upon the best in themselves. It's this "idealist" nature that forces me to never except the reality and to always push for something more, something better. We're all capable of so much, why not spend the rest of our lives trying to get as close to ideal as we can? For me, settling for mediocrity seems painful and pointless and frightening. For others, being average isn't even something they think or worry about. It's not a concern. Which is perfectly delightful because the world needs people like that to keep people like me from talking/writing too much and never getting anything done.

I highly recommend finding this book (or just googling it cuz that's way easier though you risk sullying the accuracy of your outcome ((if you see Einstein's face floating around on the screen or anything really silly like that I suggest not basing your entire personality on the information you read on that page))).

The book also, by percentage, shows the rarity (or commonness I suppose) of each personality type. The rarest type, or the type held by the fewest number of people, is “The Artist” and the second rarest type is mine. And, yes, I’m bragging. That means that there are only 30,000,000 other people in the world like me. I’m a real diamond in the rough, that’s what I am. A rare jewel of narcissism, disregard for reality, and self-deprecation.

-Age