Mel's Personality

Idealist - Teacher(ENFJ)
Introduction
In a world filled with unique individuals, when it comes to personality there are only four different temperaments and 16 types of people. Understanding these personality types and mastering your own can be the keys to achieving your goals.
Your temperament is the Idealist (NF). Idealists are rare, making up no more than 20 to 25 percent of the population. Yet their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers. Your particular personality type, the Teacher (ENFJ), is even scarcer. Individuals of your type make up little more than 5-6 percent of the total population.
About Your Idealist Temperament
There are four types of Idealists (NFs): Healers, Counselors, Champions, and Teachers. These four personality types share several core characteristics. Firstly, Idealists are seekers focused on both personal journeys and human potentials. MORE >>
Being A Teacher (ENFJ)
Even more than the other Idealists, Teachers like you have a natural talent for leading others toward learning, whether you're helping to mentor students, direct trainees, or simply counsel the people close to you. In part, your talent may be due to an almost endless ability to dream up fascinating activities for others to engage in. MORE >>
Work and Career
Your attention is naturally drawn to the individual and collective needs, desires, and experiences of people in your environment. Indeed, once you identify those people's core issues, you often feel driven to address them in some way. MORE >>

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Love and Relationships
Because so much of your life is spent in service to others, in love you value the kind of partner who can nurture you and recharge your energy. Whether this means finding someone who is a gourmet cook or gives an excellent back rub, you'll truly appreciate the TLC that a mate canoffer. MORE >>
Famous Teachers
Find out which well-known individuals are ENFJs just like you. MORE >>
What Each Letter Means
The letter names of the sixteen personality types (ENFJ, for example) are based on four letter pairings that represent David Keirsey's dimensions of personality. Each pair of letters defines a different aspect of personality. Together they create a detailed picture of a unique type of individual. MORE >>
About Your Idealist Temperament
Idealists are spiritual, intuitive people who can enjoy spending a great deal of time and energy working toward a better understanding of who they are. The ultimate hope of this group is to attain true wisdom. For the most part, Idealists are enthusiastic individuals who can find joy meaningful relationships as well as the world around them. People of this temperament can pride themselves on being loving, kindhearted, and authentic. Other fine traits include being more giving and trusting than many around them. An often-passionate temperament that yearns for romance, Idealists can make intense mates, nurturing parents, and inspirational leaders.
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Being a Teacher (ENFJ)
If you're like most Teachers, firing others' imaginations is a skill you take pride in. You likely enjoy helping people dream up new potentials for themselves and the world around them. However even more than this ability, perhaps your greatest strength may lie in believing in those whom you teach. Just like classroom teachers look for the best in their students, individuals like you tend to tease out the best from the people you surround yourself with. By clearly communicating your faith that each "student" has untold potential, your confidence can inspire people to grow and develop more than they ever thought possible.
In whatever roles you take on, you'll likely consider people to be your highest priority. Teachers like you often instinctively communicate your personal concern for others and your willingness to become involved where needed. This warm, outgoing nature can make you the most expressive of all the types, as can your knack for using language. This is especially true when communicating face to face.
Teachers like you rarely hesitate to let your feelings be known. In fact, there are times when you may absolutely bubble with enthusiasm. Because you're able to imbue the things you say with a dramatic flourish, you can become a charismatic public speaker. This verbal ability can also afford you a good deal of influence in groups. You may even be asked to take on a leadership role.
In most aspects of your life, you tend to like things settled and organized. As a result, you probably schedule work and social engagements well ahead of time. That way you can make certain to honor your commitments. However if others aren't quite as steadfast, you're likely to be quite generous and forgiving. Interpersonal cooperation and harmonious relations are often more important to you than holding others to their word. You can be extraordinarily tolerant in this way - a trait that is sure to make you both easy to get along with and quite popular.
Another trait Teachers like you are often prized for is your well-developed sense of intuition. It allows you to be highly sensitive to others and mindful of your own needs and desires. However, because you can identify with other people so easily, there are times when you may find yourself picking up the characteristics, emotions, or beliefs of those around you. Connecting with people is great, but be mindful of when you're taking on qualities that may not be true or advantageous to you. You can be yourself and still show a sincere interest in others joys, concerns, and pains.
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Work and Career
In your ideal job, you would likely be able to use your inner beliefs as a guide for empowering others. Perhaps you would do this by teaching individuals to better meet their own needs through self-knowledge and mutual understanding. Your sense of reward usually comes from seeing how your efforts have resulted in others' growth, healing, or progress. Though you are comfortable with leadership, you don't like arbitrary hierarchies. You care deeply about people as people, and often feel that maintaining official role boundaries interferes unnecessarily with both communication and progress.
Like other Idealists, you are wired to pursue personal growth, authenticity, and integrity. You yearn to develop yourself fully as an individual and to facilitate that growth in others. You tend to thrive when you can turn your attention to the personal concerns of your coworkers, clients, and customers - as well as to your own personal growth.
Love and Relationships
For your love life to be its most successful, you'll want to achieve an equal balance of give and take. When it comes to finding a mate, you're apt to be drawn to the very qualities in others that you feel you lack yourself. As a result, types who are more happy-go-lucky and content with the status quo can be very attractive to you. Chances are you admire the way this kind of person is able to make their way through life without the weight of the world on their shoulders. You probably also appreciate their carefree sense of optimism. During the early stages of relationships, the differences between you and your mate are likely to be especially endearing and fun.
About You
You are especially likely to be constantly touching your partner, affirming your love for them. Your type is generally seen as one of the most romantic types, and you are likely to lavish your partner with admiration, a sympathetic ear, and constant reminders of your love. You may leave love notes where your partner is sure to find them and bring them treats that you know they will enjoy.
You probably enjoyed dating. The romance of meeting someone new and getting to know them is exciting. Adding an extra fillip is the possibility that this new person is your soul male. Even if the person isn't, you have learned more about people and may have a new friend.
One difficulty that you may have in a relationship is your tendency to idealize your partner. When you fall in love, you are likely to see only good in them. No one can live up to this kind of ideal. As you start to realize that they have true flaws and not just cute idiosyncrasies, you may experience a backlash of feeling. Fortunately, you are likely to have a practical side to you. Once you get over the disappointment, you can work to create a stronger relationship based on a true evaluation of each other.
One aspect about you that may cause your partner problems it that they may feel they can't live up to your beliefs about them. They may fear that as you look to plumb the depths of their soul that you won't see much depth. Also some types can feel smothered by constant reminders of the relationship. They may feel comfortable with a little more distance between you.