What Personality Type Are You?

On one of her recent visits, my sister brought me a book called The Rainbow Comes and Goes. I put it aside at first because it didn’t seem like my type of book, but Karen said she’d enjoyed it, so I gave it a try. The book is a conversation between Anderson Cooper and his 91-year old mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Both of them suffered losses in their childhoods, and they reflect on how those events shaped their lives.

They also came to recognize their similarities and differences. One of Gloria’s traits was that she didn’t plan for the future. “I went with the flow, rarely having a plan or thinking seriously about the future…The future has never had much reality to me.” Anderson saw that as a passive way to live life, just letting life happen instead of directing your own life.

I identified with her on that, so it triggered some introspection about that quality in myself, since passivity is generally seen as a negative trait. After almost a decade at university, I still had no plan of what I wanted to become. I changed my field of study whenever my interests shifted, which was often. I decided to go study in Sweden on a whim and ended up staying for over three years. I graduated with no clue what my next step was going to be. I’ve always been a bit more of a ‘the universe will provide’ kind of person, and, in that case, it did. I found a job that was perfectly suited to me. And I sure had a great adventure along the way.

Even thinking about the immediate future doesn’t come naturally to me, which is why when I go out, I usually need to pop back into the house a couple of times, “Oops, forgot my wallet.” or “I guess car keys would be helpful. Hee hee.”

The positive side of not thinking about the future is that I’m not a worrier. I spend close to zero percent of my time worrying about things that may or may not happen. I’ll cross the bridge when I come to it (though I’ll likely have forgotten to bring my ticket to get across).

I started thinking about how the combination of certain traits work together and came up with my own set of personality types, similar to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (I’m an INTP). My personality trait breakdown has no scientific basis whatsoever, but since science seems to be being overtaken by self-proclaimed experts, I’m just gonna jump right on that bandwagon. Ready to take the test?

Do you live life Passively or Deliberately? (i.e., Are you a go-with-the-flow type or are you more goal-driven? Do you wait for opportunities to present themselves or do you plan your future?)

Do you have an Optimistic or Pessimistic outlook on life? (i.e., When you think about the future, are you more hopeful or worried?)

Do you make decisions Impulsively or Rationally? (i.e., Do you close your eyes and jump, or consider the long-term consequences of your decisions?)

Do you seek Novelty or Stability (i.e., Do you like trying new things or do you prefer your same routine?)

POIN – Gloria was a POIN. She lived her life passively; believed that things would work out and new adventures were waiting around the corner. She thrived on chaos and novelty, and made decisions impulsively. “I become enthusiastic, and if something sounds like a great idea, I move on it without considering the long-term ramifications.” She had an exciting and eventful life, but it came with regrets. She spent much of her time replaying scenes from her past and imagining how they might have gone differently if she’d made different choices. She advised Anderson not to “do something silly and mess up what you already have because you crave more. There is no amount of ‘more’ that will ever satisfy.” She acknowledged that she’d hurt people unnecessarily and that she could be exhausting to be around.

DPRS – Anderson is a DPRS. He’s lived his life deliberately, setting goals and planning for the future. He described himself as a catastrophist, preparing himself for worst-case scenarios. He’s a rational decision-maker, and was the ‘voice of reason’ who tried to temper his mother’s impulsiveness. He craves stability and security (though he’s probably somewhere in the middle on the N-S spectrum given the type of work he’s done as a journalist).

PORN – I’m a PORN (my acronyms may need some work). I’m most similar to Gloria, but we differ in that I’m a more rational decision-maker (a result of my Vulcan blood, my siblings would say). That’s maybe prevented me from making reckless decisions.

I haven’t worked through all 16 personality types, but I imagine that DORNs and DORSs would be high achievers. PPINs would be a hot mess. I just came up with this framework while writing this post, and so far I’ve only applied it to three people, so there could be a few holes in my theory…definitely in need of peer review. What type are you on the Carolyn Chodura Personality Scale (CCPS)?

In other news…Nick was sad to climb his last tower for the summer. It’s certainly been an experience to remember and his summer was far more fun and adventurous than he’d anticipated.

His flight from Winnipeg arrived late in the evening, so my sister picked him up at the Toronto airport, put him up for the night, then drove him to Brighton the next morning. It was very generous of her, but it also gave her a chance to spend some quality one-on-one time with her favourite nephew. And it gave Nick a chance to learn that his aunt and his mom share the trait of correcting his grammar, except she corrects his spoken grammar and I correct his written grammar. I googled to find out if there’s a term for people who do that and apparently it’s ‘jerk’.

Nick’s back in Kingston now, oblivious to whether or not he’s using proper grammar. He’s living with four other students, and has started a 12-month internship with Parks Canada. The engineering program at Queen’s includes an internship after the third year of studies. His housemates have finished their internships and will be entering their final year.

We’re still getting lovely surprises from our gardens, like these hibiscus…hibisci…hibiscuses? We’ve also had some not-so-lovely surprises. After suffering through two bad rashes this summer, Ray finally tracked down the source to a poison ivy vine hiding in our cedar hedge. I’ll spare you the pic of his rash.

Juno had a fun week with a trip to the beach, visits by both Nick and Auntie Karen, and – most excitingly – the return of her bestie, Daisy, after a month-long vacation out west. They were both SO happy to see each other again.