There was a time, not so long ago, when I felt lost and directionless. I was existing in a fog and while looking after kiddies and working too, I worried about my future.

I also didn’t know myself anymore.

I used to be more of a flexible, spontaneous, adventurous person, but the responsibilities of being a partner and working mother I felt had dulled me. I had become a busy planner and far less flexible.

I didn’t know:

• what I liked.
• what my passions were because I wasn’t sure I had any at all.
• how to shift my life into a place where I felt better; more inspired.

So I started to take small steps to focus on me!

So I gently decided to take some sort of action. I began to:

• observe my habits and how I spent my time, to look for patterns.
• take care of myself.
• start doing small things that I wanted to try – like running, writing, and drinking water!
• I started to set myself challenges.
• I started to get into action to making tiny changes to my days.

Bit by bit I began to get to know the current me. One way that sped me along my new quest for self-knowledge was by doing personality quizzes.

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These small changes led to my joining a most dynamic and supportive digital education community where I learnt the skills necessary to start my own business, which I love. But that’s a separate story. However, you can watch the same free videos I did to learn about all the possibilities and opportunities available when you move your work life online.

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I LOVE personality typing quizzes.

In fact, when I was younger I wanted to study psychology (and architecture and veterinary science and environmental science, which I did, and archaeology, which I did… but this is because I am an Enneagram 7 – see below).

Nevertheless – if you are interested in what makes you tick, or react, or work, or be in relationships, the way you do/are – there are a number of free tools to learn about yourself.

Here are 3 quizzes below.

The Four Tendencies

How do you respond to expectations, what motivates you?

According to the Four Tendencies Quiz by Gretchen Rubin, which you can take here – I am an Obliger. This is how I respond to expectations.

“I do what I have to do. I don’t want to let others down, but I may let myself down.” 

from the Obliger – Four Tendencies Quiz by Gretchen Rubin

Obligers tend to accomplish things if they have external accountability. Not internal self-lead accountability. No surprise there!

I am part of a meditation accountability group – and fairly often I am motivated to meditate so that I can reply to the group with a small green check. To be honest.

I also have a daily to do list, which comes with a warning:

In my experience, this does not always work so well for busy, organised people, like me, because I can keep myself very busy doing the small non-essential stuff, and not get to the really important thing.

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Myers-Briggs 16 Personalities Typology

Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers created the 16 personality types to help people discover their own strengths and understand differences amongst people.

Self-awareness or self-knowledge is something I consider to be of great value, hence my love of personality typology.

When you discover your own personality type, you’ll understand your motivations. As a result, you will be able to make decisions that suit your true nature. And live a life better aligned to who you are.

I am an ENFJ – known as The teacher – owing to their interest in helping others develop and grow, and stands for Extraverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging.

• And Extravert is a person who is energized by time spent with others
• iNtuitive refers to my focuses being more on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details
• Feeling indicates that I am likely to make decisions based on my feelings and values, not fact
• Judging means that I prefer to be organised with a plan, rather than spontaneous and flexible (hard to admit for me!)

I came across Truity who have the 16 personalities test available online. This is not an affiliate offer and I am not an expert, but I took this test, having taken it before elsewhere, and my results were the same.

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The Enneagram Personality Test

The Enneagram is a large and complex personality system that aims to reveal what motivates you to get what you want.

There are 9 personality types, each of which has strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for personal growth.

I am a 7 – the enthusiastic visionary – and my type is all about getting as much enjoyment as possible out of every moment of life. I avoid pain and boredom and fear getting trapped or having my freedom limited – so I can, not ideally, disconnect from my deeper feelings as a way of avoiding this.

Once again this is from Truity who have the enneagram test available online. Again this is not an affiliate offer and I am not an expert, but I took this test too, having taken it before elsewhere, and my results were the same.

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Focus for Scattered Types, like me

But – in my life, I have spent much of my time focusing on my to-do lists and checking things off. I am a naturally fast busy person. This is why my intentional pursuit of simplicity is so necessary for me. It allows me to focus more easily as my life contains less.

Lately (and I am in my mid 40’s) I have learned that I need to prioritise what is important, essential, the one thing that will move my life and/or business forward.

As mentioned above, checking items off a list can keep one busy, but it does not necessarily progress one towards a real goal. (Also – busyness is something that one who is aspiring to live a simple, beautiful life – does not do. Period!)

A great book about this is Gary Keller’s The One Thing where he describes the importance of honing our focus on the one thing we need to do in order to accomplish what we want.

I would urge anyone who is easily scattered (like I am) to read this book. Separately I would also advise meditation and mindfulness practices – but that is a separate post. I did mention it in this post.

Your self-awareness

If you are interested in learning more about yourself, take one, or all of the tests!

I am no expert but I use what I have learnt about myself every day in the work I do, in considering my responses to everyday situations, in how I deal with people, and in the decisions I make today which will create my future.

I am very interested in people and stories.

So please do let me know in the comments who you are! I would really love to know.

And as always – thanks for reading.