Personality tests take your words.

They sell back their words.

They’re fun, addictive, and often clarifying.

They keep us learning about ourselves and each other.

They also can leave us confused and feeling more broken.

That’s why it can be a revelation to see this flaw in the process that comes from the difference between your language and theirs.

Of course, we need interaction and reflection to learn about who we are. Valuable reflection can come through failures, friends, journaling, and objective-ish systems.

But why is it that assessments can give us a high of clarity before a low of obscurity? We’ll explore it a bit.

BTW, you’re right to feel that something feels off.

There’s a hidden cost to assessments.

For example, if you don’t know French, and a person says in French ‘you’re amazing’, what happens? Besides sounding nice, it does little for your clarity, esteem or growth.

When you have to learn a system’s description of your personality, it makes it harder to APPLY.

The cost: CLARITY.

I suffered this for years.

Purpose work felt stale and dead.
Vision statements disappointed & went nowhere.
Words from assessments, groups &…