The Best Personality Tests for Self-Discovery
Get to know yourself -5 Personality Tests that help you live and work better
“To know thyself, is the beginning of wisdom” -Socrates
Getting to know yourself is the first step in personal development, learning new skills, growth and overall learning. These four personality tests, plus the last one which is more a journal prompt, can help you to identify where you are and in what area’s you can grow.
This week on the podcast I talk all about my favorite personality type tests and how they can help us learn, grow, communicate, be intentional and get touch with ourselves. To listen to the episode, click HERE.
I started out on what I call my personal development journey when my husband Zack and I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University Course. I sat down and took a look at my habits, spending, if I was a nerd or a free spirit, a saver or a spender, if I used “things” to mask my emotions or avoid dealing with negative feelings. And Whoa, that opened me up to the world of personal development.
First, you have to know where you are. This is where personality tests come in. Sometimes, it is difficult to be self-aware and these personality tests are some of my favorites. Keep in mind there are hundreds of these personality assessments out there and you will find some that you connect with more than others.
The past couple of weeks on the podcast we talk about Gretchen Rubin’s 4 Tendencies so if feels right to start here.
1. 4 Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin –Are you a upholder, obliger, questioner, or rebel? Gretchen Rubin is a researcher and author who studies happiness, fulfillment, and motivation (along with other things). She developed this idea of the 4 tendencies of motivation. It all boils down to, are you internally motivated, externally motivated, both or neither?
To take the quiz and find out how you are motivated click HERE.
2. Enneagram- 9 interconnected personality types which create a wheel and map of characteristics and typologies -this describes how people interpret the world and manage their emotions.
Take the quiz HERE
3. Emotional Intelligence-Institute for Health and Human Potential has a short EQ quiz. There are four areas of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. This test will show you where to start in order to improve each of the 4 areas.
Take the Emotional Intelligence test HERE.
4. Myers Briggs Type Indicator- 16 types -most widely used, helps you know yourself better so you can better communicate, relate, learn, and grow. This is often used in professional and team building settings.
Take the test HERE.
5. Psychology Today’s -VITALS Questionnaire- This is more of a journal prompts but being clear on these things is, in my opinion the most important way to be more in tuned with yourself, your work, and how you spend your time both present and future.
V - What are your values?
I - What are your interests?
T - What is your temperament?
A - What are your around the clock activities or biorhythms?
L - What is your Life mission and meaning?
S - What are your strengths?
To learn more and dive into VITALS click HERE.
This is not a comprehensive list that can tell you everything about yourself, your motivations, habits, or how well you work with others.
However, for me, this was the beginning of better understanding myself. It helped to not feel so alone. I am motivated by fun, by experiencing things and getting to know knew people. I also, have always felt like an extroverted home body. How do those things work together?
I don’t typically compare myself to other people, but I want to be a positive roll model. I have dynamic rhythms in my life, I get impatient easily and will do anything to avoid boredom, I like new things, new food, new people, and I am also perfectly content with a day at home alone. Nothing about that makes sense! I have always felt like a defiant weirdo because so many things about me are different and quite frankly contradict each other.
I can push myself to achieve more than the average joe; I also cannot work on something for more than 20 minutes at a time. I can get more done once a week between 5am and 9am and then spend the rest of the week doing basically nothing. I can flip my mood at the drop of a hat, but most people would say I am a mix of calm, happy energy. I am a pretty decent leader and don’t shy away from stepping up to the plate, but I am also perfectly comfortable as a silent workhorse. I hate being held accountable; I cannot force myself to do something unless it makes sense to me but can crank out my own to do list like nobody’s business.
There are so many things about me that just don’t go together or make sense until I started diving into these personality tests. It helped me to better understand myself so I could start to improve the area’s that I wanted to. It also just helped me to feel like I was normal. It also helped me to understand how to work, live and communicate to others better.
These shouldn’t be used to overhaul your life; they should be used as a tool to uncover things about yourself that didn’t make total sense. They should be used to help you better communicate, work as a team or just be more content with yourself, your whole self, even the parts that contradict each other.
In the book The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery authors Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile explains how the test is not meant to put you in a box, rather it is meant to show you what box you are already in, and give you the tools to help you climb out. And, that’s where the journey to growth, self-discovery and relationships starts.
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