Stop categorizing

Why do we have this desire to put people into boxes? Introvert or extrovert. Talkative or shy. Right or left brained. Myers-Briggs personality types. Hobbies.

The other day on the radio, a dj said, "Here's an easy quiz to find out whether you're an introvert or an extrovert: are you happy or disappointed when a social event gets cancelled?" But for me, it's not that easy. Some days I long to be around people and talk to them, but other days I'm content to sit in my room alone all day long. I'v taken many (free) versions of the Myers-Briggs personality types and I've received both introverted and extroverted results. I love being an ambivert, but so often we try to categorize other people and even ourselves by test results, personality traits, or pretty much anything else.

The growing trend of taking Myers-Briggs tests is so cool because it helps us to understand ourselves and others and why we think the way we think and why we get along better with some people than with others, but it can also allow us to make excuses for ourselves about why we can or do not want to do certain things. That's the problem with trying to categorize people. There is so much depth within one person that it is impossible to completely understand everything about them.

So let's stop putting people into boxes, judging them just by the little bit we see of their inner thoughts, sometimes after just meeting them a couple of times. Instead, let's allow people to be themselves and allow us to be ourselves instead of trying to force ourselves to act a certain way.