Personalities

I used to chafe at the way I always seemed to be a misfit… but had my own way of dealing with that by having a perverse enjoyment and exploitation of it. ( You who have found yourselves misfits in the general sense know what I mean). Like “Ok, let’s turn those little slights and jabs around”. If I had any wit I would’ve made a great comedian, because I think that is how comedians are made.

But alas, I am rather humorless, a great fault in Modern American society. I was rather flippant about my lack of people skills and provided entertainment for my friends with the analytical ability to pierce through inflated egos, but when becoming a Christian all that proved to be something of a liability.

Always one for self-help…. I moved along the Christian self-improvement circuit, but it was the MBTI that fleshed out the thinking for me. I had already accepted some of the teaching, along the way, of how different giftings and callings operate in the Church. So I was starting to look at the perspective of personality clashes as simply different expressions of how to reach the goal. The Myers-Briggs model ( which isn’t well-accepted in the official pscho-analysts book, I understand) helped me try to understand the views and life approaches of some of my family members and to see why I often bump heads with lots of people.

Understanding oneself is not the same as making excuses, although it can deteriorate into that. I just have an interest in it, and have found it somewhat useful for trying to improve my people skills, which -admittedly- my type of background didn’t make especially easy to come by. It didn’t give me power to change, just helped me become more amenable to change…. which always has come through the power of God through prayer in my life.

Anyway…enough about me… what about you? Ready to join up on your ‘world approach’ blogroll?