Have you done that test? The one that tells you if you are an introvert or an extrovert, if you like closure or open ended, and if you value thinking over emotion? I've done it half a dozen times or more since I was 19- which was a REALLY long time ago. I don't always get the same score. Well, some things stay the same and some things change. I am always the closure person, solidly, but sometimes I'm a thinker and sometimes I'm a feeler. I think it depends on what's going on in my life at the time I take it, or if I'm taking the test in light of my personal life of professional life. The other thing that has changed back and forth over the years is whether I'm an introvert or extrovert. My mother has a hard time buying the introvert label, but that's because she's never been an unknown quantity to me, nor has she ever seen me in a new situation. I, myself have only been puzzled about why it goes back and forth. I admit, I don't like people, they drain me and make me tired. As my friend Amy says though, "Then I'm glad I'm not people." She's right. I like my friends, my family, and in general my co-workers. People I don't know, not so much. Oddly, this does not prevent me from striking up conversations with people in lines waiting for things. I'm not shy. I'm... I don't know what.
At least I didn't know until two days ago. If you've ever done the Myers-Briggs, you'll know that they define introvert/extrovert as whether you get energized from being with other people or from being alone. I've always observed that the answer in my life is, "Yes." I can get energy from being with people sometimes and other times being alone energizes me. On Friday, while I was swimming laps, which I do because it is by it's nature very much something you do alone, that I get energized by ideas. Sometimes you get ideas when you're in conversation with others and sometime you get ideas when you're alone. That's why I go back and forth; it depends on where the birth of ideas is happening. I decided there needs to be a third category for where your energy comes from, so I made one up. I'm a captovert.
Captovert? I looked up the Latin for "idea," and one of the words it gave was captus. Idea is just one of the meanings of it, the others being -not surprisingly- things like "capture," and "to take hold," or "prisoner." I picked it for my new word though because those are the kinds of ideas that I'm talking about when I say I get my energy from them. (plus, informatio and comprehendo didn't work so well with -vert.) A good idea gives me so much energy that I can even drive for hours in silence if I have a good idea to chew on. It's what I love about swimming laps, all that time to think, and what I love about good conversation, all that thinking out loud.
See!? I was so energized by this new idea, and it's metacognitiveness (after all, ideas about ideas? how energizing is that!?), that I'm all fired up to blog!
2 comments:
You sound like my daughter! Thanks for putting it into words. Love ya, whatever you are. MOM
Interestingly, I took a leadership class in college and we did a whole big thing with the myers briggs. They explained to us that it was personality typing but situational. When we took the test we were supposed to think of ourselves in a certain role. I am super extroverted when in a workplace role, in charge of a group, heading a task etc... but if I think about the test and think of only my personal role I can swing wildly toward the introverted side (although I still am in the extrovert category)
I like the captovert. Perhaps you can come up with a category for me as I swing between J and P (judging and perceiving) someone who loves order and balance but is also a slob and scattered. I call it an Annoyovert.
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