Thursday, February 03, 2011

Why Personality Typing Helps Relationships

This week on the Love Project the theme is Know Yourself. Yesterday's Website Wednesday included a bunch of links to personality typing systems, both serious and silly. And those are just the tip of the iceberg.

But are these tests just fun or can they be useful? Today, in my Pick The Brain guest post: What's My Type and Why Should I Care? I explain that by learning about personalities, you discover how different people are and begin to understand not only yourself, but others. From the article:


I used to be confused or take it personally when someone wouldn’t be pleased by the same thing that pleased me. We’re so used to hearing the golden rule: Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. But really, it should be: Do unto others as they would want… which may not necessarily be what we would want ourselves.


Another Pick The Brain article, How to Unleash Your Hidden Power, describes the power of knowing your value and strengths. The author writes:


Defining yourself comes from a combination of articulating your values and acknowledging your strengths. Knowing these things will give you a clear picture of where you want to go and the tools you have to get there.


Knowing yourself and feeling good about who you are is, in my opinion, a pre-requisite to love. You need to start with yourself. That's why, in this love project of mine, I have started with assignments and themes about self-love.

If you haven't done so yet, I hope you'll pop on over to the Know Yourself Assignment and add a one-word comment describing yourself. (Or feel free to leave a longer one or a whole blog post!)

Stay tuned as we have more assignments and fun to love ourselves and others.
Please subscribe to The Love Project and spread the word!

3 comments:

Lauren said...

Love this concept. I think it's so important to realize that our reactions to things are so different. Marriage has taught me this and also helped me understand my type, whatever that is

shirlnutkin said...

i have learned that i have been (as part of MBTI) an ENFP that has moved toward the ENFJ-ish side ... where i've been on the 'slightly extroverted' side. definitely agree that understanding peoples' styles and respecting them is central to any relationship.

Aidan Donnelley Rowley @ Ivy League Insecurities said...

Another thoughtful post. What does it mean to know others? What does it mean to truly know ourselves? I think about these questions all the time. And I have no ready answers. But I think you are right that self-knowledge is in some important and inscrutable sense the foundation for love.