Thursday, June 2, 2011

Life is Short

Yesterday I had my monthly appointment with my shrink - yes, I see one. And I'm kind of proud of the fact that I went to seek out someone to talk to to sort out this "life" thing! Anyways, she's totally genius and has a book out called "The Integrity Model of Existential Psychotherapy," which basically states that we get stressed out and in bad places mentally because we engage in behaviours that conflict with our core values.

Since my main cause of stress in my life is my job, I thought I would take advantage of her career counseling services as well. This was my long-winded way of saying that I took the Myers-Briggs test, which is a personality test based on 4 dichotomies:

Extroversion vs. Introversion
Sensing vs. Intuition
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judgement vs. Perception

You're then given an acronym based on where you score highest. I am an INTJ (introverted-innovative-thinking-judgement) based person, (the second rarest type, might i add!), and it describes me perfectly... it's almost scary how well it pinpointed both my strengths and weaknesses.

These reults really helped to re-affirm the thought process that has been going through my head these last few months: That I will never be truly happy in my job unless I do somethign that has both an element of creativity and independence involved.

If you're interested in taking your own test, you can find a free one online here.
I'd love to hear how you scored!

In Conclusion: I've been toying with a business plan of my own for some months now, and this recent discovery combined with the Hollstee Manifesto (which was JUST brought to my attention and is now my favorite thing of the moment!), has convinced me to DIVE IN! While I won't be quitting my job anytime soon (I have issues with instability!) I'm going to make sure I devote time each week to developing my idea and establishing the steps I need to take to make my dream a reality.
I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress!

The Holstee Manifesto

6 comments:

  1. Love that manifesto, I truly live my life that way most of the time. Take the time each day to appreciate the things that may not be there tomorrow.

    This was my result ENFP
    Extraverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiving


    But it didn't really explain in too much detail what that means. I wanna know what yours said about you!

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  2. Good for you! Keep doing what makes YOU happy and try not to sweat the small stuff (thought I know that it's easier said than done).

    My husband and I are trying to be more thrifty in exchange for better vacations/better retirement. I know we're only 25 years old, but before we know it, we'll be 55! Our goal is to have a modest house (nothing big for us!) that we can pay off quickly. We'd also rather eat in and not shop all of the time in exchange for elaborate vacations. Sure it would be nice to have a new pair of shoes every month, but we'd rather travel the world! Our goal is Hawaii for Christmas this year instead of presents and the regular hoopla.

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  3. Okay never mind I didn't realize there were links. That test was dead on!

    http://keirsey.com/4temps/champion.asp

    http://typelogic.com/enfp.html

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  4. This sounds great! I can't wait to hear more.
    I remember taking the test in highschool, but that seems like forever ago now!!

    Natasha ~ Required2BeInspired

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  5. Hooray! That's so awesome. You should definitely take your life in a direction that's better for you.

    I'm still hoping to start up my own business. I haven't looked into it enough because I'm not 100% I can bring it to reality, but every day I find the reality of it happening getting closer. I guess I should really take this summer to look into it.

    INFJ(Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging), which is apparently the ideal Counselor personality, taking up less than 3% of the population. Ironically, I'm going to school for psychology. I think it's fairly accurate.

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  6. I'm an ESFP, we're total opposites from each other.

    I think it's great that 1) you see a shrink, and 2) you went to a career counsellor. You are obviously trying to do something about the situation you are in that is causing distress. And I hope you are able to work out your job situation. It's hard not enjoying the work you do. But there's the stress of bills... it's tough. But I think you will be able to do well in whatever you put your mind to.

    Take care.

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