3 Personality Tests that will Help You Understand Yourself

When was the last time you took a personality test? Did you learn something new about yourself?

One of the biggest benefits someone can gain from taking personality tests is building self awareness. Although this may sound like a no brainer skill, the ability to understand yourself is actually crucial to your personal growth. You need to know yourself first in order to understand your behaviors and emotions. Only after understanding your behaviors and emotions can you begin to change and grow.

Personality Tests can help you Understand Yourself

From setting your goals, to planning your life, to improving your health & wellness, everything starts from being more aware of who you are, understanding your actions, emotions, strengths & weaknesses, your dreams, and why you are doing what you’re doing.

If you haven’t really find these answers yet,  it’s okay. Building self awareness is really a daily and constant practice. I’m also still finding my way and learning more about myself every day.

One quick and easy way to begin understanding yourself is to take personalities tests. There are plenty of different tests out there, but these 3 tests are my favorites and provided many useful insights for me to understand my personality, behaviors, and natural tendencies.

16 PERSONALITIES TEST

This may be one of the most popular personality tests out there because of it’s accuracy and distinct metrics. These 16 personality types are developed from the Myers-Briggs Type indicator and the Big Five Personality Traits. I like that the questions from this assessment are easily understandable and the descriptions are very detailed.

The five personality metrics are:

• Mind – how you interact with surroundings (Introvert vs. Extrovert)

• Energy – how you see the world and process information (Observant vs. Intuition)

• Nature – how we make decision and cope with emotions (Thinking vs. Feeling)

• Tactics – how you approach work, planning, and decision-making (Judging vs. Prospecting)

• Identity – how confident you are in your abilities & decisions (Assertive vs. Turbulent)

It provide insights in all categories of your life from your strengths & weaknesses, to career path, to relationships. I love asking people about what their personality types are to understand them better (hey, it’s also a great topic to start the conversation when meeting new people!) Take the test now.

4 TENDENCIES

This test was created by Gretchen Rubin, author of NY Times Best Selling book Better Than Before. This assessment (and book) has helped me understand so much about my tendencies and choosing the right goal setting approach that actually work for me.

The assessment groups people into 4 categories based on how we tend to respond to expectations. We all face either outer expectations (ex. meeting work & school deadlines, responding to pressure from our peers) or inner expectations (ex. wanting to wake up earlier, keeping a New Year resolution, etc.)

You can belong to one of the 4 categories

• Upholder: meets outer and inner expectations

• Questioner: resists outer expectations, meets inner expectations

• Obliger: meets outer expectations, resists inner expectations

• Rebel: resists both outer and inner expectations

Understanding how you meet expectations is crucial to developing the right goal setting approach.

For example, I’m an obliger. I respond highly to external pressure, but I can let myself down sometimes if I just keep them to myself. So the best way for me to meet my goals is to find an accountability buddy. I will also make goals with the end result benefiting not only me but also other people as well (Fun fact: it’s one of the reasons why I started blogging)

Find your type now.

AYURVEDA: FIND YOUR DOSHA

Ayurveda is a holistic science of health approach to understanding your body and mind. I discovered this practice recently and have since been so obsessed with it!

It is a practice originally from India, focusing on the “preventive” approach of wellness and is used as an alternative medicine. Ayurvedic therapies and remedies have since been globalized and modernized to integrate into general wellness applications as well as some medicine uses.

The Ayurveda approach states that nature is formed by five elements: water, earth, air, space, fire. Together, these elements form three components (called doshas) that make up everything in this world.

• vatta: air + space

• pita: fire + water

• kapha: water + earth

These three doshas can be found in everything and everyone, but in different proportion. Together, they combine to create different climates, different foods, different species, and even different individuals within each species. In fact, every one of us contain a specific ratio of doshas within us to function at optimal health. An imbalance of these doshas can lead to deterioration in health and trigger negative emotions.

Each dosha relates to specific functions of the body:

Vata

The vata energy is associated with motion, including your blood circulation, breathing, heartbeat, and your nervous system. An imbalance in vata can lead to fear, anxiety, and exhaustion.

Pita

Pita energy is thought to control bodily functions such as digestion, metabolism, nutrition absorption, and body temperature. An imbalance in pita can lead to ulcers, anger, and hate.

Kapha

Kapha energy controls the growth, physical structures of the body, and immune system. This energy provide emotions such as calmness, love and forgiveness. An imbalance in kapha, however, can lead to insecurity and envy.

Every one of us is made out of one or two dominating doshas. After finding out my doshas breakdown, I’m able to analyze my emotions and behavioral tendencies better. I love how the Ayurveda approach recommends specific diets and behaviors to practice in order to stay in balance. I highly recommend you to take the test.

There are a few tests on the internet. I like the one from Holistic Online because it’s very detailed and thorough. I would suggest trying out a few different tests before making a conclusion about your dosha.

So here you go! These are the 3 personality tests that have helped me a lot in terms of understanding myself.

A general guideline for getting a more realistic result is to answer them honestly and objectively. I like that these test results sometimes show something I don’t really want to admit about myself (my weaknesses, for example), and I almost always learn more about myself every time. Also, because these tests are just fun to take in general!

More Related Posts:

• 4 Ways to Be More Mindful

• 7 Ways to Journal

• 4 Ways to Improve Your Self Awareness

Shir

How about you? Have you taken any of these 3 personality tests before? Let’s share our results!

Shirley Huang is a Certified Life Coach, Podcast Host, and online educator. She provides weekly resources to help people become leaders in their life, while loving themselves and having fun a long the way. Check out her Life Coaching Programs here.