Can personality tests help in life, or is it just an interesting diversification of soft skills training? In my life, I have done a number of different personality tests. Most point to similar traits of my character. Great, I know what my character is, but how to use it? What to do with this knowledge? Is it even necessary for happiness? About this in today’s post.
At the outset, I will remind you that this article and all the others on this blog are my subjective assessment and my private feelings. They certainly should not be accepted as “revealed truth.” The content contained here is only to make you think about the topic yourself. In my opinion, there is a lot to think about.
I do not know what it looks like in your case, but I have twice in my life made a fully conscious decision regarding the development and direction of learning. Apart from these two decisions, I went with the flow of current events. For me, being able to see where a path will lead is fascinating. Such observation can sometimes lead to a dead end. What to do then? If we are pleasant in this alley, then in principle there is no problem. However, if you do not like it in a given alley, you can choose a new path.
Here comes a new problem: there are an infinite number of paths, and the days in life are numbered. In my opinion, it would be worth doing something that I like, that is natural for me, and that is my strength. How do I diagnose my strengths when I haven’t tried so many things in my life?
Personality tests
Observing people from their own environment, it can be said that everyone has their own “strengths”. In something, he is a super spec, to whom you go for help. Sometimes I wonder how such a person discovered his talent. It turns out that some people discover their strengths on their own, and some need an impulse from the outside.
For example, I knew one of my strong traits, treated another as a vice, and pushed the third out of consciousness. Why? I think about it all the time, perhaps due to a lack of information. Because it seemed to me that this is how it should be.
As I wrote in the introduction, many personality tests are already behind me, but one made a particularly positive impression on me and allowed me to understand many topics. We’re talking about the Gallup Strengths Finders test. The test is very pleasant to implement, and in return, it gives a lot of valuable information. It won’t tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, but it will allow you to better understand why you act the way you do and how to use it.
One of my character traits is the need for constant development. I used to think I was just curious about the world. Then, that I want to do my job as well as possible, so I expand my knowledge. This is normal. Recently, I decided that this could be a manifestation of workaholism, which I am still learning. Today I know that this is simply my character trait. I stopped fighting it and started taking advantage of it. That’s what I made of programming a hobby because I’ve heard that learning to program never ends. For some, the need for constant learning is unbearable, for me a mega plus.
What can you do? All in all, exactly what I did. Take a personality test and think about how you can use your strengths to improve your daily life. I have recently understood that you can use your character traits and make every day more pleasant. You can also completely unconsciously fight with your qualities and then life can be hard. I can wonder every day why I don’t watch TV series like others, but I’m constantly learning new things, or at the same time enjoy learning. Nor is it about judging yourself or others. Each of us is different, so there is no one way to enjoy life.
Of course, just knowing your strengths will not make life turn into a paradise, but in my example, I can safely say that it is more pleasant. What’s more, you start to wonder what you can do to make even better use of your strengths and thus achieve your goal, if you have goals at all. A little curiosity from my personal backyard. I have such an interesting mix of personality traits that at the same time I love to learn and I have a lot of determination to achieve my goals.
The problem is that somehow in my private life so far I postponed the implementation of goals. I had them written down, but the implementation after the initial phase was dying out. I thought it was the so-called “straw man’s zeal”. After a deeper analysis of the results of the Strengths Finder test, it turns out that the problem is the lack of vision of the further path after achieving the goal. I have the most pleasure from the whole process of achieving the goal from the way to the goal. Therefore, I start the road, but as soon as the end of the road appears on the horizon, I abandon the realization of the goal for fear that the pleasure will run out. I would probably never have thought of it myself. The solution that works for now is to have a goal as far away as the end of the galaxy. This goal is broken down into small goals, possible to achieve in a certain period of time. In other words, the road will never end and the goals are achieved, so I have fun both from achieving goals and on the road.
To sum up, it is worth taking an interest in your strengths, if you do not know them yet. It is also worth taking a personality test if you feel that something could go better in life, that something matches you (doing some tasks, works) perhaps these actions force you to fight with your qualities. As you can easily guess, I recommend the Strengths Finder test mainly because thanks to it I got many answers and it allowed me to find joy in everyday life again. I’m not saying that it will be the same in your case, but on the other hand, apart from the test fee, you do not risk anything else. You can also start by listening to a few episodes of Dominik Juszczyk’s podcast “With passion about strengths” to learn more about personalities according to the Gallup Institute.