Using A Personality Test May Be Dangerous To Your Wealth, Health, And Happiness.
"Reds over here, Blues over there. Whites over here, Yellows over there."
Recently I heard those words spoken in a communications class, students having just taken the popular "color code" test.
I watched closely as the students moved and sat down in the four segregated sections of the room.
And then sat upright, with rapt attention and utter belief, as the teacher began rattling off very detailed descriptions of each "profile," and the behavioral tendencies of that profile, including but not limited to:
- What job you'll have
- How much money you'll make
- What relationships you'll have
- What goals you set
- How you relate to others
- Whether you'll get up in the morning
- What car you'll drive
- How kind you'll be
What?
All this can be learned from a few multiple choice questions?
I tested as a combination of 2 colors. Other people have told me, and I can see why, that I am specifically a red.
But as I listened to the "description" of reds, how they "need the world to bend to their whims," and get "angry if anyone gets in their way," will "yell and scream and curse during traffic jams," I was reminded of my actual real-life experiences in traffic, just two days ago.
Although I was driving during the rare non-rush-hour time, a dump truck had spilled all of its contents onto the roadway.
4/5 lanes were closed, and a small army of street-sweepers were cleaning the mess.
I sat for 20 minutes in a complete standstill.
While sitting there, I had an epiphany.
Regardless of this physical outcome, I can choose my emotional outcome.
I could take on, as Tony Robbins would say, a "new threshold of control."
Immediately, I thought:
I can be just like everyone else, bored and miserable here, or I can leverage this into an extremely grateful and beautiful experience.
It sounds small and silly, but remember, similar thinking can apply to much bigger experiences.
So, I decided to be flexible and open.
I started thinking about how grateful I was that I was driving a great, reliable, car with comfortable climate control.
With gas.
Driving to an appointment.
With a really enlightening audio-book that was expanding my mind into new dimensions and helping me make connections, which I had more time to listen to because of the traffic.
And that I had access to money to pay for all of these things.
I re-framed the experience.
I made my day better, not worse.
Openness to new experience, a core tenet of personality, changed for me in that moment.
Because I decided to change it.
I consciously made the decision to be better, because I have a vision of who I want to be.
I acted from the future identity I have of someone who doesn't get upset easily.
You shape yourself more than you think.
The Great Lie
"We know that personality doesn't work in types...I wouldn't trust the Myers and Briggs to tell me any more about my personality than I would trust my horoscope." - Dr. Kate Rodgers
When IQ tests were originally created, they were created as a means to measure how your intelligence changed over time, and whether schools were doing an effective job of increasing your IQ.
Not simply one snapshot of your overall intelligence which would dictate your results for the rest of your life.
Personality tests are much the same way. They have been abused in the same way.
They only measure your past. They take absolutely nothing about your future into account.
Their assessment of your own psychology is incredibly limited and blindsided. The color code, for example, really only measures two traits, constructs 4 profiles from those traits, and then extrapolates pretty much everything else.
Most people take these tests to help them "discover" who they are.
It's interesting to see people alter their behavior and live their life according to their "color" or their "ISTJ" or whatever other "result" they've been handed, to fulfill their "authentic" personality. As soon as they receive the results, they start to act in the manner prescribed. With continued action comes an identification with that "personality." This leads to the false notion that the results were legitimate, when in reality you created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Far too many people think that they can somehow unlock the keys to understanding everything about themselves through something externally.
Using personality tests for fun may be entertaining. However, many people view these with absurd seriousness. They use these tests as blueprint and a guide for their entire future. To me, this is incredibly irresponsible. You're going to outsource your behavior, goals, and communication to a multiple choice test?
"The best way to predict your future is to create it." - Abraham Lincoln
Rather than consciously creating the future, and taking complete control of their narrative, their environment, and their story, most people are seeking to find someone else to hand them the keys to their future, instead of leading out with the courage to create it.
Please embrace this truth.
You will never discover outside of yourself what it is that you truly want or your potential for who you can become.
The fact is, you're a blank slate. You can become anybody you wish to be.
It's time to rewire your story. To live into the person you can become.
Take Control Of Your Life
"Only you can control your future." - Dr. Seuss
My own life is not the only example, nor is it the most drastic, to show how much you can change as a person.
In the New Testament, there was a man named Saul who spent his time, energy, and occupation, killing Christians and mocking believers.
He then had a spiritual awakening. He changed his life around and became the greatest advocate and apostle for Jesus Christ.
As Saul moved forward with his new goals and his new direction, his identity changed. His personality changed. His behavior changed.
Even his name changed.
He was not born with a predisposition for anything. His goals and behaviors shaped him into who he became.
Consider yet another example:
A mentor of mine by the name of Greg Denning is an amazing family and life coach who is changing the world, impacting others, has an amazing family, and is living out his full potential.
Today he's an incredibly exuberant, authentic, and happy person.
However, he used to be very shy, very scared, and very stuck in his life.
Until as a young person, he started to read books, among them the classics How to Win Friends and Influence People and As a Man Thinketh, and was opened to new possibilities. A new way of thinking. A new way of living.
He decided that he wanted to make some changes, and improve himself.
He's now a very enthusiastic person who's open to new experiences.
He loves people. He loves connecting. He loves learning. He no longer identifies as a shy and insecure person.
His personality literally changed because of his vision of who he wanted to be changed.
He changed his vision and he took control of his story.
He became the one calling the shots.
He became the conscious creator of his life.
Your vision dictates who you are, much more than your past.
Rise Above Your Current Level
Your current self talk, mental models, habits, routines, levels of happiness and success, income, and relationship status are your current levels of living that you have become accustomed to.
You have built who you are over time as a consequence of your choices.
When you take control of your choices, you start to take control of your life.
You upgrade the quality of your choices by:
- Playing full-out
- Engaging in subconscious-enhancing experiences
- Putting yourself in situations and environments where the quality of your choices automatically improves
- Courageously living beyond your current level of comfort. The zone of your abilities will grow
- Adopting new beliefs, new systems, new patterns
- Deciding that you want to make a change
You can actively, consciously, and deliberately choose who you want to be when you start living bigger.
For as famously stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."
You'll be playing on a different playing field when you embrace your own ability to change.
What are you scared of doing?
What 1 thing, if done this week, would completely change your life and relationships, but because of previous trauma, previous bad experiences, you have been avoiding?
Do that thing.
You Grow Into The Identity You Give Yourself
Our society is obsessed with various labels, the least of which are personalities.
- These kids over here are smart, they go to the smart people classes.
- These kids over here are dumb, they go to the dumb people classes.
- These kids over here are really creative, let's put them in the art classes.
- These kids over here are very social. They're the popular ones.
- These kids over here play sports. They're jocks. They're obsessed with games.
Many, many, adults, are still clinging to, and using labels, they were given as small children.
What's interesting about this phenomenon is that as Malcolm Gladwell reports in the book Outliers, skill and personality isn't so much innate as it is cultivated.
The best hockey players are often born in January, February, and March. This is because they are the oldest players because of the cutoff date for yearly teams.
Because these kids are slightly bigger than their younger counterparts, they perform slightly better.
Because of this, they get more attention. More coaching. And get moved into the elite teams sooner.
Their skill was cultivated as a byproduct of the circumstances and the environment. It was not innate.
Their environment proactively shaped them.
You grow into your environment.
You grow into who you say you'll become.
"Nearly all rich and powerful people are not notably talented, educated, charming, or good-looking. They became rich and powerful by wanting to be rich and powerful. Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal it's difficult to score." - Paul Arden
What if, instead of some test, some pre-described outcome, you started intentionally investing your emotion and your action into what you decide?
Get creative. It's your life.
You can tell yourself in this very moment, I take control of my life.
I decide who I want to be.
I am the one calling the shots.
Who do you want to be?
When you start living your life this way, when you realize you are not confined within the boundaries of what anyone else tells you you can do or be or have.
You become a changed person.
You constantly evolve.
You have emotional flexibility.
You have courage.
You're not stuck.
You control your narrative. Your identity. your environment. Your self-talk. Everything.
You can start over, if you need to.
Bad experiences help you to learn and grow, but they do not define who you are.
You take on a much higher level of consciousness when you start living your life with the true belief that you change.
Ready For More?
If you want to take complete control over your life and start controlling your own narrative, an amazing friend and mentor of mine, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, has written a book on this subject called Personality Isn't Permanent.
Disclaimer: there is no affiliation or compensation in any way.