INFJ

Have you ever taken a personality test?

A few years back, I took the 16 Personalities Test and found out that I am INFJ.  The summary of my personality nailed me (at least I think so), saying that I am creative, insightful, inspiring and convincing, decisive, determined and passionate, altruistic, sensitive, extremely private (not sure how accurate this one is), perfectionistic, always need to have a cause and can burn out easily.  Yep.  This is me.

Photo: Emily Christopher

I'm sure this is where my need for a Bucket List comes into play.  My dreams turn into goals and if I don't feel like my life is counting each and every day, then I feel like I'm wasting away.  I'm not content to just live "the American dream".  I want to live an adventure.  I want my life to mean something.  And I'm not content to just have this for myself...I want it for those I care about.  This is a lot of the reason why I continue to blog about dreaming and traveling and bucket lists.  I want to inspire people to live the kind of life that they truly love.

I spend most of my days taking care of my home and myself, catching up with friends and family, growing with Ironman, running my small business and I sprinkle in my blog, Bible study and random things that pop up in my Calendar here and there.  I often find myself wanting to buckle down and work hard to achieve my goals, but at the same time, getting easily overwhelmed with all that it comes with.  It sometimes ends up being a constant battle...feeling down about not doing enough, but then freaking out when I do too much.  So, I usually have to take time to remind myself what truly matters to me so that I can stay focused and balanced.

Relationships always come first for me.  I would much rather be a great wife, daughter, sister and friend than stay busy working towards success.  And I don't need a lot of friends to be happy, just a few who I can trust and spend time with regularly.  With three sisters and a mother, I already have four built in best friends.  My dad and I are also very close and I would consider him one of my best friends.  Ironman, though...he is the ultimate, always there for me when I need him and the best husband I could have ever wished for.  I love that we can spend every waking moment together and not grow tired of each other.  As close as I am with my family, it sometimes makes me feel like I have little time for other friendships, but I do manage to work them in as much as possible because they are still important to me.  Over the years, though, I've had to learn a lot about friendships.  I would love to have a million friends (because I like so many people that I meet) and I want to spend time with all of them all the time, but because of how I am easily burned out, I have had to learn to set boundaries.

As I've learned more about myself, I honestly feel like it's helped me become a better version of me.  I see my strengths, but I also see my weaknesses and I'm constantly trying to improve in both areas.  I highly encourage you to take the 16 personalities test or another good one (tell me which one you take so I can try that one also).

Every person in the world is unique.  There is only one you.  Be you.  Be the best version of you.