What Happens When You Defy Your Personality Type?
Personality testing can tell you a lot about yourself, including your strengths and the best path for you. But what happens when you defy your personality type?
From finding new interests to risking your relationships, ignoring your personality type can have some unexpected outcomes – good and bad. You might feel lost or confused but you might also end up uncovering traits you didn’t know you have.
Here are 9 things that can happen when you defy your personality type.
1. You step outside your comfort zone
Personality testing is all about finding your true character, including your likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. When you defy your personality type and start trying different things, you’re taking a chance and stepping outside your comfort zone. This can be a really positive step to help you grow.
While it can be scary and more than a little bit daunting, forcing yourself to do things you’ve never done before or that you don’t normally feel comfortable doing can be really important in helping you develop as a person. Keep pushing yourself beyond the limits of your personality type and see what happens!
2. You stop playing to your strengths
One of the downsides of defying your personality type is that you stop using your strengths to your advantage. In this situation, you might end up making things more difficult for yourself.
Instead of leaning into your strongest traits, you resist them and try to act against them. While it’s not necessarily something to be worried about if it’s only for the short term, it’s worth being cautious when you try to defy your personality type.
3. You discover things you didn’t know you could do
Defying your personality type can be a wonderful opportunity to find new abilities and skills that you didn't know were in you. For some personality types, that might mean taking on new responsibilities at work, for others it might be opening up about their emotions with loved ones. Everyone can benefit from tackling new challenges and going against the dominant traits of their personality type to potentially discover something new.
4. You might feel lost or conflicted
When you go against your personality type, there is a risk that you can end up feeling lost or directionless. This is because your personality type is at the core of how you act and approach your life. When you ignore this, you can end up in situations and environments that don’t suit you.
If you’re defying your personality type to try something new, remember to pay attention to your gut feelings. If it feels wrong and is affecting your sense of self, you might need to try a new tactic instead.
5. You meet different kinds of people
Personality typing can help you find people who match you well as friends or partners - but what happens when you defy your personality type? You could get the chance to meet a whole range of other types of people who are actually perfect for you!
While personality type is a really useful guide for finding who you could be most compatible with, that doesn’t mean that you should exclude everyone else. Stepping outside your personality type can give you the opportunity to meet new people who have interesting ideas, philosophies and hobbies that help you develop as a person.
6. Relationships are less authentic
The downside to defying your personality type is that you risk damaging your relationships in the process. If you ignore your true personality and try to be something different to who you really are, you can quickly end up in a negative cycle.
You might find that your relationships are less authentic because you’re not being genuine. There’s a big difference between trying something new and being fake. Keep this in mind to make sure that your relationships stay open and honest.
7. You push yourself more
Sticking to your personality type can be very comfortable. When you defy your personality type, you have to try that little bit harder to make things work. This can help you to build resilience and strength. If you’re determined in your goals and you keep trying even when things get tough, you can learn a lot about yourself and your abilities.
8. Tasks can take longer
Understanding and leaning into your personality type can be really beneficial for your productivity, giving you a roadmap to make the best of your personality and your unique characteristics. When you defy your personality type, you might find that simple tasks take longer.
For example, if you’re trying to do an administrative task that you know you find challenging based on personality type, you can be more efficient if you take breaks and get help from others. If you ignore these factors and try to plough on regardless, you might find that the task is harder and takes longer than it needs to to.
9. You learn to appreciate new things
Defying your personality type now and again can be really fun! If you approach new activities and environments with openness you can learn to appreciate new things.
To give an example, if you score highly for introversion, you might stick to activities that fit your personality type and feel comfortable to you. But there’s a whole world of opportunities that you could be missing out on! Say you opt for going to a live concert instead of staying in with friends - you could discover a whole new band or even genre of music you never knew you liked! Sometimes defying your personality type can be hugely important for helping you appreciate all the amazing opportunities open to you!
