leadership personality

About two weeks ago, I walked into the BYU Counseling and Career Center to take the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator.There were a few problems with this: 1. I don't really appreciate being labeled, 2. I took a personality/career/calling in life test that took 45 minutes my sophomore year only to find at the end that my results were "inconclusive" and they suggested that I take the test again...I didn't do that, 3. It was going to cost money and I really didn't want a thirteen dollar "inconclusive" message. So in all of my obvious cynicism, I walked into the center and gave them my Student ID and sat down to what seemed like the same two or three questions repeated over and over and over, but of course they were not exactly the same, so I was second-guessing myself and whether I was answering what I really thought or just what I want myself to think, or if my answers contradicted themselves, or if but luckily my lack of patience was more important to me than the actual results and I just stopped taking so much time on each time and finished just about as fast as I finished that sentence. 


So when I got my results, I was really surprised to see that I was not so contradictory. I am an INFP: Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them. Want an external life that is congruent with their values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, can be catalysts for implementing ideas. Seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is threatened. An its not like there's anything wrong with that, it's pretty accurate in fact, but I always thought that I was this interestingly ambidextrous enigma of a person; a balance of left and right brain, and yet here I am completely one-sided in the types represented.Feeling a little bit one dimensional, I turned the page to see that my most suitable careers would be in the category of the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. This wouldn't have been so much of a problem however if I hadn't completely changed from wanting to study writing and literature to political science and law which ranks about twelfth on my list. So then of course I am second guessing my choice to switch my major and thinking about how much I am enjoying my writing class and how much I was dreading my comparative governments test and just had this overwhelming feeling of doubt.

As I let these feelings stew a little, just thinking about the results, my patriarchal blessing, and talking with my family, I finally had to take my government test and just what happened...I did really well. It wasn't so much that moment, but the confirmation that I was way over analyzing my results. Whatever I want to do and especially whatever I think my Heavenly Father wants me to do, I can and will do, but by recognizing my strengths and weaknesses, the road to get there can be a lot smoother and more fulfilling.I have had a change of heart and I really do appreciate that the Meyers-Briggs helped me recognize that I really do need be a little more decisive and little less perfectionistic, but that I do have strengths. Admitting that I have strengths, or even recognizing them, has always been difficult for me because there's aways that conflict between being confident and being humble, but I am good at relating to people, trying to use different perspectives, and focusing on the future. While I am seeking to be my best self, I am so grateful to have this new self-awareness that can be so rare in a leader. Now when one of my roommates needs some reassurance, I can be confident in giving it to her or when one of them is upset that I seem to be overbearing or nagging, she probably is right I should back off. Still, I am most grateful that I can always ask my Heavenly Father for insight into myself and how I can become better, and I promise to try to listen.