We all have different facets and quirks in our personalities. I always enjoy discovering these in others as I get to know them.
One of my strongest traits is that I am highly intuitive. I know they say women tend to be that way more than men, but it’s also part of my personality. As an ENFP on Myers’s-Briggs, extroverted intuition is my leading cognitive function. It basically means I want to seek out and take in lots of meaningful data and interact with meaningful stimuli (and people are included in that sometimes).
When I say meaningful I mean that it has a deeper meaning. I don’t care about the exact date of things or to know random facts about something so much as to see why it is meaningful for the human experience or to see how it fits into the larger whole.
One example is when I was taking high school Biology. I was fascinated by how the different parts of the cell worked together to help it absorb energy and move and live, and I would get almost full credit on every essay test question when I could explain the processes and functions. Yet, I would get many multiple choice questions wrong, as they were often asking about random pieces of information (and were sometimes confusing in the options to pick from).
My intuition is an asset when I try to understand things I enjoy: thinking about philosophy, theology, psychology, or metaphors and meaning in literature. I’m great with themes, character analysis, and trying to understand people, systems, and complex situations.
But…I often miss little details because I’m not interested in them, or I try to extract meaning too quickly in situations where I don’t have enough information to do so yet. That can create problems (reading into someone’s body language or nonverbals, for example!).
I sometimes miss the trees for the forest, if you will.
Our personality traits often have both sides to them- strengths and weaknesses – and that’s ok. It proves we’re mere mortals and we need each other to show what we lack (I love working with detail-oriented types for this reason! Though I probably drive them a bit crazy).
And as a Christian, I believe God wants us to use our traits in a way that best shows our love for Him and others. for me, this means finding meaning in almost every aspect of my life (even enjoying ice cream, lol, it’s a spiritual experience okay?). And it means helping others to see connections and find meaning.
What about you? What are some of your strongest traits where you see strengths and weaknesses?
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