Don’t you love taking personality tests? My favorite is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). According to it I’m an ENTP. Apparently, the ENTP’s “primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in.” Yep…that sounds about right.
I’m pretty proud of that facet of my personality. But along with the good comes the bad. Check this out: “Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.”
My weakness. My kryptonite. I tend to hop from project to project obsessively. Traditional wisdom tells me to fix that weakness. But I’d rather exploit it. Here’s why.
I get most excited when I bounce from project to project. Excitement fuels my creativity and I really function best when I’m sequentially obsessing about different things. You see, each weakness has a beneficial aspect to it. I actually thrive on coming up with new ideas and building new things.
That’s why I start so many blogs. That’s why I build fun challenges into everything I do to keep myself interested. That’s why each issue of Sunday| Mag has a unique theme…it feels like a new project each month. When I’m able to exploit my own weakness, I can keep excited and coming up with my best ideas.
I don’t function best when I focus on one project for long periods at a time. Sure…I could learn the discipline by gluing my face to a computer screen and trudging away. I could…but I’d be missing out on a really good aspect of my personality. I function best by switching between new projects. My weakness can become my strength if I exploit it properly.
What is your greatest weakness? And how can you exploit it?
PS. I got all my MBTI Profile facts from here. You can take the test for yourself here.
this is so encouraging and freeing to those of us who share your particular weakness… gotta jump, three different things are calling my creative mind right now… right this second.
go go go! 🙂
this is so encouraging and freeing to those of us who share your particular weakness… gotta jump, three different things are calling my creative mind right now… right this second.
go go go! 🙂
Love this. Wow. I brand new way of looking at things. MY FAV- you wrote, ” really function best when I’m sequentially obsessing about different things.”
Love this. Wow. I brand new way of looking at things. MY FAV- you wrote, ” really function best when I’m sequentially obsessing about different things.”