Many people object to being labelled or classified. I don't particularly like it either but I find it very useful to know if I'm right-handed or left-handed. It would be pretty hard to play golf as a right-handed person if someone handed me a left-handed set of clubs!

There is no inherent rightness or wrongness about handedness and it's the same with MBTI preferences. If you undergo the MBTI then you end up with four letters that describe your MBTI type but as one fellow practitioner said: - "MBTI type is like a mansion with 16 rooms and ALL the doors are open. You can go into any of the rooms but will expend different levels of effort and feel more or less comfortable in each"

The instrument asks you to make a choice between two sides of a dichotomy. People say "but I do both"... and they're RIGHT! They DO do both - just like I use both of my hands. I find it easier doing things with my right hand. I also know that with effort, I can get really good at doing things with my left. The MBTI helps bring psychological differences (analogous to physical differences like handedness) into our awareness so we then have greater flexibility of choice.

The MBTI questionnaire describes an individual's personality preferences. It represents these in four dimensions:

Where we find it more natural to focus our attention and get energy from:

Extraversion
Preferring to pay attention to and draw energy from the outer world of activity, people and things
or
Introversion
Preferring to pay attention to and draw energy from the inner world of reflections, feelings and ideas.

Sensing
Preferring to focus on information gained from the five senses and on practical applications in the here and now
or
Intuition
Preferring to focus on patterns, connections and possible meanings, with a future focus

Thinking
Preferring to base decisions on logic and objective analysis of cause and effect.
or
Feeling
Preferring to base decisions on a valuing process, considering what is important to people.

Judging
Liking a planned, organised approach to life, and preferring to have things decided.
or
Perceiving
Liking a flexible, spontaneous approach and preferring to keep options open.


Future coaching tips will give real examples of these preferences in action. There is a wealth of information on MBTI out there on the web - far more than I can provide here. My focus will be on making the MBTI useful and practical so it's not just a four letter that people have.