My current spurt of inspiration is coming from a couple of platforms. Firstly, I recently purchased and read (in about 15 minutes), “Steal Like an Artist,” by Austin Kleon. Secondly a few of my close friends and I have a group text where we were talking about each of our personality types.
So the “Steal Like an Artist” motivation is making me want to create things- whether writing or music while the conversation about personality types has given me something to entertain myself with for a while.
I play this game where I go through my mental list of friends and try to peg their personality types starting with E or I then N or S then T or F and finally P or J. For the record, I’m an INFP, and I’m proud to say that “writing” is listed as a suggested profession, followed by “social work” which is what I’m leaning toward right now. Anyway, after mentally pegging each person’s type, I posted a status on Facebook and got some interesting answers!… If only there was a way to make all of my friends comment with their types…
Not only is this a fun way to keep myself entertained but it’s also a really insightful way to understand other people. For example, I have this one friend who is an INFJ and lately I have been feeling a little tension in our relationship. Well, looking at her personality type, I can see that neither of us like conflict or confrontation which tells me that if either of us has a problem with the other then we’re not very likely to talk about it. Further, I fluctuate between P and J, so perhaps the similarity in our personalities isn’t the best combination sometimes.
Something else that I’ve noticed in general is that a lot of thinkers and judgers tend to be more outspoken about their beliefs, which I, as an INFP, sometimes take personally. I have to constantly remind myself to not take things so personally.
So that is my brief two cents on the subject of personality tests. As far as creativity goes… My hope is to become a better writer through this blog. I suspect that part of that is actually spending more time on writing posts; so far, I usually write in a burst of motivation without going back to edit (blame the perceiver in me). One suggestion that Austin Kleon gives in his book is to keep a log book which I plan to do. I also want to spend more time playing music because it truly is something I love to do but I get frustrated when I compare myself to others and give up.
Natalie Hope 