I’ve been doing some personal assessments as I look ahead to setting goals in 2010. One of the things I explored this weekend was my personality archetype.

To do that, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a 72 “yes” or “no” question test you can do to find out which of the 16 personality types you have.

Results: INTJ (44 38 38 44) - The Mastermind. Here’s what Wikipedia says about INTJs:

Keirsey referred to INTJs as Masterminds, one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the Rationals. One of the rarest of the sixteen personality types, INTJs account for about 1–4% of the population.

Knowing your personality type can help identify your personality strengths as well as explain your weaknesses. Here’s more of what Dr. Keirsey says about the traits of the INTJ:

Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists. Masterminds are certain that efficiency is indispensable in a well-run organization, and if they encounter inefficiency-any waste of human and material resources-they are quick to realign operations and reassign personnel. Masterminds do not feel bound by established rules and procedures, and traditional authority does not impress them, nor do slogans or catchwords. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted; those that don’t, aren’t, no matter who thought of them. Remember, their aim is always maximum efficiency.

My ability to easily dispense with personal relationships (including authority) as a measure of another person’s ideas or worth within a group is keen and has always guided me to clear decisions. The only problem is that a majority of people rely on relationships to advance their ideas and feel personally slighted by that and very often act accordingly.

One challenge in 2010 is for me to find a better way to effectively communicate my ideas without sabotaging them with reminding everyone in the process how much they suck. I can seem arrogant at times. It’s a personality trait of the INTJ according to Marina Margaret Heiss:

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of “definiteness”, of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise — and INTJs can have several — they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don’t know.

I don’t mean to roll my eyes or sigh like Al Gore in a Presidential debate, but when you are surrounded by as many morons as I am who can’t think past Tuesday, it happens. According to Myers-Briggs, it’s just who I am, but if I can learn to embrace it while giving less of a voice to my inner yawn, 2010 can be the year I roar.