If you know anything about personality testing, you know that this is the abbreviation is one of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators®. As you might have guessed, this is, in fact, my Myers-Briggs type.

Through work and on my own, I’ve been through multiple classes (including Myers-Briggs, DISC, and some others) and find that it helps me to understand other people as well as myself.

For those who may not be as familiar, ENFP (“The Inspirer”) actually stands for Extroverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiving. In essence, ENFPs are all over the map. Our interests are many and varied which I think helps us in being able to relate well to others because chances are there’s going to be some interest we have in common.

I think being a “people-person” predisposes me to interest in personality types and what they mean. Some shy away from personality tests because they prefer not to be “labeled” and that they’ve seen too many people use their personality types as an excuse for poor behavior.

Personally, I don’t find these to be valid reasons for personality test abstinence. A so-called “label” is whatever you make of it – just like stereotypes. For example, I’m blonde and while that may indeed subject me to some ridiculous stereotyping (”Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory?”), I’m not about to run out and dye my hair because of them. I also think that if someone is prone to making excuses for poor behavior, they’re not going to stop just because one of their excuses was taken away – they’ll just go out and find another one. But whatever.

I have been an ENFP my entire life…at least I suspect as much. I took my first Myers-Briggs test when I was about 12 as a result of my grandfather who used to insist that anyone entering the family take the test to see how their personality differed from their soon-to-be spouse (I think everyone came up as exact opposites which made me wonder if they hadn’t, would my grandfather have refused to let them marry?) Anyway, I came out an ENFP. I took the test again at 18, 22, 25, and 30. Each test still showed me as an ENFP, although I watched the scores for each letter grow over time so that rather than slowly becoming more “balanced” between each type indicator as some do, I actually became a stronger ENFP. Today I am a more-or-less textbook case – perhaps I should be studied.

Some of what you can learn about yourself can have you feeling pretty good (e.g. ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential.*) Other things you get to learn about are your weaknesses (e.g. ENFPs sometimes make serious errors in judgment. They have an amazing ability to intuitively perceive the truth about a person or situation, but when they apply judgment to their perception, they may jump to the wrong conclusions.*) Hm. Something to work on.

One thing I’ve learned is that, unlike most Extroverted types, my specific combination needs some alone time. This was a relief to discover this after recognizing my desire to sometimes say “no” to going out with people which I thought was supposedly contrary to how extroverts in general behaved. I have also found on vacations that my limit for spending non-stop time with others is roughly 9 days. For instance, on my Thailand sailing trip with 14 other people on 2 relatively small boats, I got up 9 days into the trip, grabbed my iPod, and sat on the bow of the boat for several hours alone that morning without speaking to anyone. I needed that time to get myself recharged and centered – it felt great.

However, I think that results from things like Myers-Briggs or DISC are pretty useless if you aren’t given the direction or tools to know what to do with the information once you have it. At Merrill Lynch, they employed psychologists who conducted team-building workshops which were great. There are other tools and coaches out there who use them to help you discern what career path (or new career) might be a good fit. This is one of the things I’ve used it for – to help give me ideas about where I might want to focus my attentions in the future.

Should I go back to school and become a brain surgeon, or should I consider getting a job at SeaWorld feeding the dolphins?  Perhaps I’ve missed my calling as a professional glassblower, or maybe I should go back to being a waitress.  Maybe I would really blossom in the paint-color naming department of Sherwin Williams, or do I stick with my current role as a Project Manager for the rest of my working life?

I actually think I will always be a project manager whether in my current capacity or not.  Life is full of “projects” (a.k.a. things we have to complete from start to finish) and since ENFPs get bored easily and therefore are generally not good at follow-through, being a project manager now I’m finding is a great help in training myself to finish something I start. That’s great, but the question still remains – What is around the next bend on my Yellow Brick Career Path?  If only I had a periscope to see.

So anyone else want to share their 4-letter code?  No stereotypes – I promise.

* All quotes referencing the ENFP MBTI® personality type are taken from the BSM Consulting website (http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFP.html)