8.25.17 4

A Fun (And Free!) Activity My Family Did On Vacation

Happy Friday, friends!

I hope everyone has fun plans on deck for the last ‘normal’ weekend of summer. I’m currently in Virginia Beach with my BFF Molly for a girls weekend. I actually won this trip at an event earlier this year—y’all, I never win anything so this was especially exciting—especially since the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau has been so wonderful to work with! Follow along live on Instagram, and I’ll be sure to recap in full here soon.

In the spirit of vacation, I wanted to share a fun and free (!) activity my family did when we went to Savannah last month.

(And once you find out what it is—you’ll quickly realize that you can do this with any group of people in your life, in any city, at anytime.)

If your family is like mine, you tend to re-hash the same topics when you spend an extended period of time together: gossiping about the black sheep in the family, the ‘what ifs’ about the future, the best part of the trip so far. While I love all of those discussions, I thought it would be fun to pose a new question for discussion to the group, which I did via email before our trip:

What is your Myers Briggs Personality Type?

For those of you unfamiliar, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test essentially takes what are seemingly random preferences and behaviors and organizes them into 16 unique personality types. Each type is derived from four pairs of letters. Based on questions about those four pairs of letters, you determine if you’re an Introvert or an Extrovert, you prefer to take in information via Sensing or Intuition, you prefer to make decisions by Thinking or Feeling, and whether you prefer to live your outer life Judging or Perceiving.

(This graphic gives a great overview of each of the types and what each of the 8 letters mean.)

I already knew that I was an ENTJ from taking the test at work. However, for those in my family that hadn’t yet taken the test, I sent over this free one by 16 Personalities, which is a great resource for learning more about each of the 16 Myers Briggs Personality Types.

For the trip—y’all, can you tell my family is really nerdy yet?!—I had printed out one-pagers from 16 Personalities about each of our types so that we could read up on each of our personalities. This is where the real fun began, as we would take turns reading aloud sentences that described us or another family member to a T. It’s crazy how accurate some of the descriptions were—we were dying laughing on multiple occasions.

My sisters are both ESFJ, my mom is an ISFJ, and my dad is an ISTJ. The only letter we all have in common is “J”—and I would say we all relate to that need for organization and structure deeply. But, since we have a range of extroverts and introverts, as well as core letters—S/N and T/F, it was a good way to step back and think about how we all communicate, make decisions, and process information.

We’ve gotten a few of my cousins to take the test since we’ve gotten home, and have had so much fun comparing results. In addition to making this a topic of conversation on vacation or with friends at a wine night, this would be a really fun thing to do around the holidays if you’re looking for a free and fun activity—and one that steers folks away from talking about politics ;].

Let me know if you know your MBTI and relate to your type in the comments below! x

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4 Comments

  1. After I found out my type (ENFJ) I made EVERYONE take the test!! I had to know what everybody was. It’s so so interesting to me. And really cool to see how everyone gets along and what each other has in common. Some things were surprising and others weren’t. And you’re right, the descriptions are scary accurate!
    It’s also fun to look up what celebrities and famous people share your type!

    Published 8.25.17
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    • Katie wrote:

      It is so fun to figure out what everyone in your life is! We have very similar personality types :] I love looking up celebs, too! Glad I am not the only one interested in this :]

      Published 9.3.17
      Reply
  2. Monica wrote:

    Such a good family vacation idea…totally using it next time!

    Published 8.25.17
    Reply
    • Katie wrote:

      I bet your dad would be really into it :]

      Published 9.3.17
      Reply