- E - Extroversion: I enjoy and gain energy from social interactions.
- N - Intuition: I choose abstractness over concreteness; and I t end to focus on the big picture rather than the minor details.
- T - Thinking: During decision making I consider objective and logical criteria. Therefore, I don't intuitively take into account personal or social preferences.
- P- Perception: I often dislike planning for the long-term. Because of this, I'm frequently late with deadlines.
As I learned about the traits of an ENTP, I was shocked at how spot on it described me (the good and the bad). When it came to strengths, we love learning new things, we're quick thinkers and natural leaders who are excellent at brainstorming. We're often the go-to person when others need help putting things into perspective. Some of the other positive elements ENTPs possess are confidence, charisma, creativity, and loyalty.
All personality types have their fair share of weaknesses and recognizing them is key to improving our personal relationships and career. Some of an ENTPs are being opinionated, running late, coming across as insensitive because we think on more of a rational level versus an emotional level. Also, we dislike restrictive rules and routine and instead we're driven by spontaneity.
I continued to read up on the attributes of "The Debater" and thought about what applied to me and what didn't. To be honest, mostly everything I learned fit my personality to a T. It was kind of scary but refreshing at the same time. Learning more about myself and how my mind works has allowed me to adopt some positive changes in my life. I considered the weaknesses of an ENTP and thought about how I would turn these negative traits into strengths. For example, I used to be late for everything-appointments, meetings, deadlines; it didn't matter. Fast forward to now. There are still instances where I'll run a few minutes behind schedule, but usually I'll arrive early. Also, I'm not up all night working because I waited to start a project at the last minute.
Another aspect I've changed about myself since taking this personality test is being a little bit less of a debater. When I read about ENTPs playing devil's advocate and coming across as argumentative, my first recollection of this behavior was as a child during gymnastics practice. My coach would critique the team and everyone would listen and take his advice. Me on the other hand, I would argue with his reasoning. Being a child and debating with an adult made me realize this way of thinking has been ingrained in me since I was little. Therefore, I knew the habit would be hard to break, but not impossible. To be completely honest though-I enjoy debating. I just do it differently now that I'm aware. Whether it's politics, education, women's rights, climate change or the trivial things that come up in our daily lives, I choose my debates more wisely.I've learned to bite my tongue and that I don't have to prove my point on every topic. Debating doesn't have to be a sport with a clear cut winner.
