My Journey with Personality Profiling

Why does everyone think I am an extrovert when I feel so much like an introvert?

I remember the day I learned about personality profiling. I was in the meeting room at the ATCEN office, and Jeremy Lee was introducing the topic to me. I remember the resistance in me as he explained the theory.

"But… this is just reducing someone's entire personality into a quadrant!" I said.

"Look at yourself and tell me if you feel that the explanation of your IS personality is not true?"

I did find many things—almost all the explanations—to kind of match my personality, but something in me still felt that resistance.

Facilitating DISC sessions was part of the modules I ran for the customer service workshops we did, and therefore, it was not a choice I had. I was determined to make peace with this and really believe in the theory—I can't advocate or teach something I don't believe in, right?

As I read the books and learned more about personality profiling tools, I began to see this.

I do not need to confine myself to this set of traits and box myself in. I do not need to box other people in as well. But what personality profiling helps me do is to see the preferred communication style of the person I am communicating with and what I could change in myself to get my message to them in the best way possible.

This taught me a few things—VERY important ego-trashing spiritual truths:

Not everyone thinks like me—and why should they?

I really had to come to terms with the fact that just because other people do not think like me, it does not make them wrong. This became the springboard for loads of work I do on empathy and understanding perspectives.

When I feel huge resistance to being boxed in, that is just my divinity telling me I can explore more of myself.

But if I live in a state of non-awareness, I will keep falling back to the pre-existing neural pathways that have created this thing called my personality. I can change and expand who I am and be unlimited, but I need to wake up and be aware of this first. This propelled my journey into deeper self-inquiry.

A person might resist me and my ideas—not because of the idea itself, but because of how that idea is presented.

If I put my ego aside and keep the greatest good in mind, I can expand my personality to communicate in the best way possible.

My Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, has said that we are not one, but three people:

1. The one others think we are – What we project to the world and what others perceive of us. If others were to answer the personality profiling test on our behalf, the results would show this.

2. The one we think we are – What we identify as. Most of the time, without deeper work, we say things like, "I am like that one!" "I am like this only!" "I want to change, but I can't—this is me!" Many of these traits come from our environment, our experiences, our vasanas (tendencies), and our karma. Most of the time, when we do the personality profiling test, the results would show this self.

3. The one we really are – Limitless, undefinable.

   
   

Who knew a small lesson on personality profiling would take me 15 years to learn? And I am sure I will keep learning. What has your journey with this tool been like?