Ah, wouldn’t life be simple if we could just KNOW things? If we could know ourselves, without shading over some parts and incorrectly exaggerating others? If we could look at someone and know what they wanted in life and what kind of person they are?

I think this is a common, if usually unspoken, yearning – especially when you are in a customer service profession like libraries. Why are other people so confusing? Why don’t other people respond to things the way we do? Or think the same – obviously correct – thoughts we think?

Confusing. Frustrating. Filled with opportunities to make mistakes that will wreck the next hour, day, or lifetime.

But we keep trying – and that’s probably the secret to it all. Keep trying to put yourself in other people’s shoes, keep trying to figure out how they feel so we know what to do next.

And there are tons of tools for this!

I’ve been teaching library management classes for about 15 years now, and I often have students take the Myers-Briggs “test” – or at least the freebie versions you can find online. (The real one costs real money; the faux ones are good enough for our purposes.)

Have you taken this? Google around to find one that speaks to you, or just use this one (click!). (That’s just the first one I found when I googled, so don’t get overly attached.)

Click on answers. Hit the final button to get some results.

Huzzah! That’s you!!

Well…it’s kind of you. It’s possibly you-in-this-moment.

I’ve taken assorted faux versions of this test dozens of times, and I do tend to fall right into ISTJ and INFJ. (Boring but steady. Hi, yes I am a librarian!) Every so often – including today when I just re-took it again, I turn up as an ENTJ. I credit this to taking it as I’m sitting at my desk, and taking a break thinking about cool stuff we are doing here at CMLE. (NOTE: be sure you subscribe to the newsletter to get all the good news!) It tweaks my personality just enough to push me over that E/I border.

(I’d still suggest taking it; but if you prefer leaping to the answers, they are right here.)

So, there we go. I read through all the handy info about my type (or, my type today), and I feel like I’ve learned valuable insights. Yay.

But really – who cares?

When I assign this to my students, I don’t really care what types they present as. (I mean, I *care* but not deeply.)

Instead, this is an opportunity to think about other people.

Those 15 other types on the handy chart? How do you relate to them? THAT is the value of doing this kind of test.

When I travel, I like to set up a handy notebook with hotel/campground reservations collected in one place, have a few possible eating locations browsed in advance, and to know about the neat touristy things I’ll want to visit (museums, statues, historical signs, etc.). When I go places I want to see and do things I’ll like, and for me, preparation is part of the fun.

My brother, on the other hand, once called me to say he couldn’t come over that day because he and his friend had been talking about Cajun food – and they decided to drive to New Orleans. From Springfield, Illinois. He was calling from the road.

I nearly fainted.

(Hey, I like spontaneous trips too! I just…like to have them planned out in advance….)

I am baffled by his approach. He is, doubtless, baffled by mine. (I doubt he gives it much thought, honestly; he’s off doing stuff instead. I find that baffling too.)

But this is when I realized: it doesn’t matter what I think. He’s not wrong.

(Shhh…nobody ever tell him this, but my brother is smarter than I am, and he’s good at all kinds of stuff. I can’t tell him that, because it’s my job as Mean Big Sister to keep him smacked around and in line. You get it, right? But it gives you context here.)

I’d be miserable on his road trip. He would be miserable on my road trip. But we both like road trips, and there we go: we found commonality, and meeting each other on terms we can each work with.

I think that’s the secret to the Myers-Briggs, and other such personality inventories. You can see very clearly that what makes you happy will very much not make other people happy. What stops you from doing something will not stop other people. The things that motivate you to live your best day will motivate other people to smack their heads into a wall to make the pain stop.

So take the Myers-Briggs. (There is some research validating the real test, so you have that going for you.)

Take the Ennegram. (As far as I can see, this is pure hokum, but…I came up as a #1 and #8 – which is pretty spot-on for me!)

Check out your horoscope. Or – this week is the Chinese New Year (happy New Year!!); read about your sign in this system. (If you are pig, be cautious this year; wear jade to fend off bad luck.)

It doesn’t matter what type of system you use.

Look around at other people. Figure out how to relate to them where they are, not where you want them to be, or where you wish they would be.

Why am I going on and on about this?

Because we are a customer service profession. And we do talk pretty often about how difficult that can be for everyone.

Making this effort to extend outside of yourself, your expectations, and your own baggage helps you to connect with other people. Trying to figure out what they want, and what will resonate with them, makes your work more effective – and also easier for you.

(And if you want to send me your Myers-Briggs types, or share your horror stories about taking assorted personality inventories, I’d be so happy to hear about it!)