Creative You: Using Your Personality Type to Thrive

by Otto Kroeger, David B. Goldstein

Overview

No matter what your passion is—business, technology, science, or plumbing—this practical guide will enable you to unleash your innate creative skills based on your unique personality type and succeed in everything you do.

Whether you can admit it to yourself or not, you are creative.

In today’s complex world, creativity is the key to finding and living your passion. Whatever that passion is— cooking, technology, writing, or even plumbing—Creative You reveals your own personal style of creativity to help you build an environment of innovation at work and home.

Discover your creative personality type with a simple quiz and detailed descriptions of the sixteen person­ality types. Plus, tools and techniques show you how to apply creativity to your everyday life. Drop excuses like I’m too old to start being creative and creativity is only for artists. Confidently use creativity to live your passion by using your natural style. Whether you are starting from scratch or enhancing an already developed skill, discover the creative you that you’ve been searching for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582703657
Publisher:	Atria Books/Beyond Words
Publication date:	07/02/2013
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	291
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Otto Kroeger is a bestselling author and expert in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Assessment. He served as president of the Association of Psychological Type International and is a current member of the National Training Laboratory Institute of Applied Behavioral Sciences. Kroeger has coauthored four leading books on personality: Type Talk, Type Talk at Work, 16 Ways to Love Your Lover, and Personality Type and Religious Leadership.

David B. Goldstein is Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® certified and has done extensive research on the connections between creativity and psychological types. He earned an MBA from The George Washington University and studied art at the Hong Kong Art School. He splits his time between New York City and Falls Church, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xv

Introduction xix

Part I Meeting Your Creative Self 1

1 Casting Light on Creativity 3

Common Myths About Creativity 4

2 What's Your Creative Type? 13

The Four Questions of the Personality indicator 15

3 Creative Profiles of the Eight Preferences 25

Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)-Your Energy Flow 26

Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)-The Complete Picture or Big Picture 35

Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)-Decision Making with Your Head or Your Heart 49

Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)-Your Public Face 58

4 The Four Temperaments of Creativity 69

Intuitive Feelers (NF)-Poetic and Personal 71

Intuitive Thinkers (NT)-Experimental and Complex 75

Sensing Judgers (SJ)-Realistic and Traditional 78

Sensing Perceivers (SP)-Dramatic and Flexible 82

Other Pairs of Preferences (NJ, ES, IN, EF, IS, FP, TJ, NP, IF, IP, EN, EJ, EP, IJ) 88

Part II The Sixteen Creative Types 95

5 Your Creative Type: Finding Your Glass Slipper 97

The Organizer (ISTJ)-Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging 102

The Facilitator (ISFJ)-Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging 106

The Visionary (INTJ)-Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging 110

The Inspirer (INFJ)-Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging 113

The Crafter (ISTP)-Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving 116

The Dreamer (ISFP)-Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving 120

The Idea Mill (INTP)-Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving 123

The Muser (INFP)-Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving 128

The Realist (ESTJ)-Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging 131

The Teacher (ESFJ)-Extraverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging 135

The Commander (ENTJ)-Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging 138

The Persuader (ENFJ)-Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging 143

The Adventurer (ESTP)-Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving 146

The Entertainer (ESFP)-Extraverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving 150

The Brainstormer (ENTP)-Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving 155

The Socializer (ENFP)-Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving 158

Part III Cultivating Courageous Creativity 163

6 Using Your Creative Type for Maximum Effect 165

7 Collaboration 169

8 How to Interpret What Critics Say 175

9 Art in Yourself: More Creative Outlets 181

10 Using Your Creative Type to Succeed in Work 203

11 Jung at Art: Encouraging Children to Stay Creative 227

12 Accounting for Audience Taste and Your Appreciation 247

13 The Creative Spirit 253

14 Courageous Creativity 261

Acknowledgments 267

Notes 271

Glossary 285

Selected Bibliography 291

Editorial Reviews

In this practical, if lopsided, guide to harnessing and implementing one’s creativity, Myers-Briggs Personality Type experts Goldstein and Kroeger give readers insights into how to use their Myers-Briggs personality traits to bring creativity to their work, passions, and hobbies. Starting with an expansive definition of creativity that makes room for everyone from da Vinci to the bus driver threading through traffic, the authors spend the first two thirds of the book breaking down the four Myers-Briggs dyads (Extraversion or Introversion, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, and Judging or Perceiving), explaining how they combine to form a discreet creative “type,” and helping readers determine their own individual types. (Helpfully, the duo includes detailed profiles for each of the 16 possibilities.) The final third of the book is more practical, though scattered, with chapters featuring thought exercises and more abstract advice on how to productively interact with other Myers-Briggs types, especially when that interaction involves collaboration or criticism. The effectiveness of the book depends a great deal on a reader’s investment in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test, though anyone stuck in a mental rut will appreciate Goldstein and Kroeger’s eclectic and provocative guidance. Agent: Linda Konner, Linda Konner Literary Agency. (July 2)

Publishers Weekly

"This well thought out and articulate book cries out for us to re-examine the traditional notion of what it means to be creative. Using the frameworks of type and temperament, the authors challenge us to know ourselves, so that we can recognize and nurture our own kind of creativity. More than a theoretical work, the book is bursting with practical information on not only how to understand our creative nature, but how to implement what excites us the most."

Cynthia Stengel Paris

Over thirty years after his field-defining Type Talk, Otto Kroeger—with his new and wonderful coauthor, David Goldstein—has created an accessible and much needed volume on creativity through the lens of psychological type. In this age of grinding demands for creativity and change, Creative You, empowers each of us to understand and fully realize the creativity that each of us is hard wired to have.

Hile Rutledge

"Today, your creativity is more valuable than oil or gold. It's one necessity that can’t be outsourced! This timeless, fascinating book shows you how to be more creative, boost your earning power and job security, and make the world a far better place."

Patricia Aburdene

"David Goldstein and Otto Kroeger have performed a valuable service by helping people of all 16 personality types to understand and enhance their creative gifts. Creativity isn't just for one type of personality. Each of us has creative potential, and each personality type has a creative contribution to make. Creative You will help you find your own unique pathway to a more creative life, even if you previously thought of yourself as uncreative."

Shelley Carson

"I found Creative You both liberating and affirming. This book has enhanced my understanding and appreciation of creative styles, and I intend to use what I have learned to paint, teach, and validate with new confidence and renewed appreciation of creative differences in both process and product. It is no surprise to see David and Otto generate, harvest, and communicate creative ideas. They are gifted, engaging men who have applied creativity to leading accomplished lives. CreativeYou is another generous contribution."

Jean K. Gill

"Whether [readers] are interested in better understanding their psychological profile or in adding a little creative fun to their lives, this book has the answers they are looking for."

Retailing Insight

"Finally a book that explains the two types of creativity in a well researched and logical manner. Some of us excel in "adaptive" creativity, changing a few features to make something work better. Others exhibit "innovative" creativity, generating the ideas that come out of nowhere. As an artist, writer, and seminar leader I have found that both are needed and understanding one's own strength is crucial to career success and satisfaction."

Shoya Zichy

"Whether you've lost faith in your own creativity or are trying to help others regain theirs, Goldstein and Kroeger provide a wealth of rich examples and practical advice on embracing—and making the most of—one's own creative style."

Jane A. G. Kise

"With a range of incisive, insightful, and unique metaphors, Creative You will assist experienced practitioners explain type concepts more effectively and help those new to the theory to grasp it more quickly and thoroughly. Goldstein and Kroeger have made a special contribution to the type literature—from cooking to spirituality to pop art, there is something here to stimulate the creativity of all types."

Katherine W Hirsh

"Whether [readers] are interested in better understanding their psychological profile or in adding a little creative fun to their lives, this book has the answers they are looking for."

Retailing Insight - Anna Jedrziewski

The authors, both certified in the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment, assert that everyone is creative; the secret is to identify one's personal approach to creativity. Goldstein and Kroeger provide profiles of the 16 MBTI personalities (e.g., the realist, the dreamer, the muser, etc.) and describe how each type can find outlets for their creativity as well as learn to express it in the workplace. They cite well-known figures such as Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Claude Monet to demonstrate their theories. VERDICT Those who find creativity a foreign concept are encouraged here to explore its possibilities a little more.

Library Journal