Is there really value in knowing your 'type'?

So, I recently completed one of those many all hailing psychometric personality tests, the MBTI. I first found out my 'type' about 2 years ago and I from that moment on I clung to my label as an explanation for my deep thinking, tending to shy away from crowds and well, more often than not, my downright moodiness!

I was an INFJ. Boarder line I/E and strong N. I never really understood or payed much attention to the J or the F bits, so whenever anyone asked (this happens frequently when you study work psychology and is also a big thing in the consulting world, so i've definately been battered with my 'type') I concentrated on the I and N. The I stands for Introversion and is paired with its opposite Extraversion. An 'I' means that you generally expend energy when you are put into social or busy situations, meaning you prefer to focus on your own inner world. the opposite is 'E' and means that you gain energy when in groups, preferring to focus more on the outer world, it gives you a buzz and you don't find it tiring and somewhat stressful like us I's.

The N stands for Intuition and means that we like to add meaning to things that are said or that happen to us, rather than S's or Sensing people who prefer to take information at face value.

Now this is all well and good and for 2 years I clung on to the fact that I was a deep thinker and that although sometimes I liked to get my energy from inside, I also got it from social interaction, my slight 'E' days...

Regretfully, this week I redid the MBTI questionnaire and although my type was similar, there were some significant differences to my I's and N's which have subsequently caused me some stress!

First, some background... I really liked the fact I was a boarder line I/E, I can be quite a shy person when not around people I know, or around people who are louder and more boistrous than I am, but I really wish I wasn't this way. So, I liked my potential for 'Eness'. I'd like to be someone who gets my energy from my surroundings, from being around others, I want to be the one that entertains the crowd instead of being the wallflower. I get frustrated with thinking deeply most of the time, its goddam tiring! and the older I get the quieter I seem to become. In a work environment its even more difficult because one has to uphold 'professional boundaries' so really you never have real friends and to me thats a constant cause of stress and feeling uneasy at work. It is especially hard in a large open plan office of about 500 people and having been told on a few occasions that I am a bit too quiet and that I don't make myself visible enough. So, as you can read, I'm a bit of a stresshead, living up to my strong deep thinker / analyser N...

So, back to my new type; this showed that I was much more of an I than before and that i'm much less of an N... so what does that make me!!! I now feel like the anchors that made me me have suddenly shifted and actually i'm even more boring than I thought I was before! I now feel i'll find it even harder to be outgoing and the life and soul of any party and that I have no excuse for being deep and moody because my N is now just at an average level! 

So, my view is that these 'type' indicators can be quite upsetting for those slightly unstable thinkers like myself!

Granted I realise this could just be an excuse for the fact that I am quite shy and that instead of sitting at work writing down my deepest darkest insights into what some silly questionnaire is telling me, that I should be wandering round chatting to my colleagues and arranging my next night out on the lash...

Well, food for thought...