Your Class & Specialization Within Life

For those used to playing massively multiplayer online games, you know that when you create your character, you often have to choose a class and then a further specialization to determine your role and play style within the game. For example, within the World of Warcraft, I had a character who was a paladin class…

For those used to playing massively multiplayer online games, you know that when you create your character, you often have to choose a class and then a further specialization to determine your role and play style within the game. For example, within the World of Warcraft, I had a character who was a paladin class that specialized in protection. Thus his role as a Protection Paladin was as a “tank” at the front lines, often taking the brunt of the enemy attacks for his party. What a lot of people don’t realize though is that just like these games you can actually determine your “class” and “specialization” within life itself using a personality profile system such as the ones created by Isabel Briggs Myers and David Keirsey (and often easily determined via a personality profile service). For example, during World War II, Isabel and her mother created what is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment so as to help women find suitable jobs that matched their personalities.

What’s important to realize in understanding this though is that your “role” or personality type is not a job type by any means. For example, you don’t take a personality test with an outcome of being told “Your optimal role in life is a WEB DESIGNER!” Instead think of your role as actions that you naturally gravitate towards so as to truly express your authentic self within life, thus making you feel truly alive and meaningful. It’s important to realize this because when you first glance at your optimal job types that match your role, they may seem completely different and without any similarities on the surface. Once you fully understand your role in life though, you’ll see that the jobs recommended for you are actually very similar below the surface because the actions that are performed within them are very similar in nature with a common pattern or theme to them. For example, some of the recommended career paths for my personality type are as a writer, counselor, teacher, psychologist, psychiatrist, musician, or clergy. Again, on the surface these careers couldn’t seem farther apart, yet with understanding they are very very similar in nature,  particularly because of what they achieve as an outcome for the individual working within that career.