Personal Development Plan

Learning that Jungian Test classified my personality, as ‘ESTJ’ was probably the most interesting thing, I’ve learned thus far. Its very intriguing to read about other personalities, let alone my own. I even had my husband take the test! The description of ESTJ personality fits me like a glove. I’ve never really noticed, but I do find myself being strict to traditions and laws, and having a clear set of standards and beliefs. I expect the same of others, and I tend to find that I have no patience or understanding of individuals who do not have the same morals and standards. ESTJ personality also describes me as a social person who has a clear vision of the way things should be, and being very aggressive, typically taking leadership. I’m often told I work a crowd well and I’m always the first person to suggest a decision and go with it. My ESTJ personality type seems to coincide well with the Locus of Control results. Finding out that I have a moderate internal locus of control, and taking control of the events that affect me in my day-to-day activities.

Also, I learned just how productive I can and cannot be, coinciding with how stressed I actually am. I believe you never fully realize what stage of stress you were actually at until it’s either over, or someone sits down and points it out to you. I am very productive, I tend to multitask a lot, solely because I am always pressed for time, and stressed to the max. I feel as if I cannot function properly unless I have an over abundance of items to accomplish on my to-do list.

I am hoping to take all of the knowledge I learn about myself and apply it to my personally life as well as my career. Being an ESTJ personality type, I tend to be overwhelming to some people, too rigid, detail oriented, and driven by my own beliefs, lacking to remember other peoples inputs and opinions. Knowing this, I’m trying to take the time and listen to my co-workers opinions on projects, instead of jumping in both feet first, taking direction and delegating responsibilities. I expect other people to be just as social as I am, and to speak up when they have an opinion on something important. I forget that I tend to be intimidating and instead of assuming someone will say what’s on their mind, ask them for their input. At our weekly meetings I have made it a point to ask every individual on my team what their thoughts and opinions are on big topics before moving on to the next. By doing this it has helped with my productivity at the office as well, by having other people tell me what parts of the projects they are willing to take over to lighten my load. I have found that I can take more time with the errors and omissions, creating my stress level to decrease when they arise.

Also working on my overwhelming, straight forward personality at home, I have been asking my husband for his opinions on dinners, and where he would like things the be places in our closets, home office, pantry etc. I have recently reorganized all of previously listed places in our home hoping that being more organized, and everyone on the same page, that day to day events will be smoother, reducing stress factors. I am also working on being so straight forward with my peers, being entirely way too organized with our group planning, making sure everything is planned well in advanced with dates, times etc. So I’m working on letting them take a little more control of the events and not being so caught up on the minor details. Thus far everything is rolling more smoothly than before, sticking the new system long term will be the true challenge.

I’m currently hoping that with this plan I will continue to be more organized, open minded, and less assertive with my group events. Resulting in, less stress, being less over whelming to some, and over all more productive.