I wanted to provide a little background on myself, for perspective. Besides it’s my blog anyway. I recently did another MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) to help me better understand my personality preference and why I do some things the way I do. This was not some online personality thing, it was done by a certified MBTI instructor. My personality preference is ENFP (Extraversion-Intuition-Feeling-Percieving) with this short summary:
Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency. http://tinyurl.com/2ed46n
While that is a good starting point, there are few other points that go deeper into who I am (taken from the MBTI book):
ENFPs are innovators, initiating project and directing great energy into getting them underway. – Check (finishing them is another matter entirely)
ENFPs value harmony and goodwill. – Check
[ENFPs] Overextend themselves – have trouble saying no to interesting possibilities and people. – Check, Check
Under great stress, ENFPs may become overwhelmed by detail and lose their normal perspective and sense of options. They tend to focus on an unimportant of distorted detail, letting it become the central fact of their universe. – and Check
If nothing else I hope this sheds a little more light on who I am as far as personality preference. All of those things I listed I have experienced or done at one time or another and I have the t-shirts to prove it.
“Enough about me, let’s talk about me.” – Johnny Bravo
Just kidding, I couldn’t resist throwing that quote in (YouTube for those not aware of JB).
I have often found myself trying to de-busy my life, I have in fact blogged about that already. I like new challenges and I like to help people out when I can, and I have just starting figuring out the concept of the “No” word. It’s hard for me to say no to people, especially because sometimes I feel like I am hurting them in some way by turning them down. While the vast majority of the time that isn’t true, as Popeye would say “I am what I am”. This also means I tend to do a lot of stuff at once. Like right now I am working two jobs, going to ASU 3/4 time (9 credits), directing music/praise team at my church, raising two amazing girls with another on the way and falling back in love with my wife every day.
Some people ask me, “How can you possibly enjoy living like that?” or “How do you find time for your family?”. I have reached a point where my life is in balance and I try to avoid things that upset that balance. Elise can attest to the fact that over the last 12 months have I turned down more website contracts than I have taken on. It is so nice to finally be able to do that. Could I do even less, probably. Do I want to right now? Nope, because I feel valued and affirmed in all of those areas of my life right now and that is important to me.
Part of this current busy-ness (ever notice that word is like business, LOL) has a greater purpose. Elise and I also recently went through Dave Ramsey’s 13-week Financial Peace University. I, more so than my wife, have made a lot of bad financial decisions in my life that have amounted to a staggering debt load that we are currently working to pay off. For my generation credit cards are like candy. If I didn’t have one, I wanted one, if there was a better flavor, I wanted it. The credit card industry had me in this daze of instant gratification and “free” money. Turns out that money isn’t free, fyi.
I can relate to the current crisis in our government because I lived like that for almost 10 years, WAY outside my means. Elise and I had been working to get a handle on it about a year before this FPU class. We had stabilized our finances and found a way to pay what we owed and still be able to eat. I am in college to provide better opportunities for my family in the future and to better myself (deadlines and schedules and all that). I am working a second job to find peace in the fact that someday very soon, we won’t owe anyone another nickel of the money God chooses to bless us with and we will be able to give even more than we give now. That is hugely important to Elise and I. We want to provide a better future for our kids and a future where debt is not the answer; hard work, personal responsibility and common sense are. “Normal is broke”, we don’t want to be normal anymore so we have chosen to “Live like no one else, so that later, we can live like no one else.”
For more information on Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University or The Great Recovery, check out www.daveramsey.com