The INFJ remains the rarest of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types. The abbreviation stands for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling and Judging. It’s the type of personality I am and that damn ‘J’ always seems to get me in trouble but I sojourn on. :]
The idea to journal my mood on a 1-10 scale came after I first learned Michael Crichton described his practice of doing this in Travels. It is a fantastic book and inspired me greatly to achieve some non-traditional success.
So I took up the same practice. For about five years as I wrote I kept an assessment of my mood on a similar 1-10 scale. 1 being at my lowest emotionally and 10 being on top of life. I figured at some point this might prove insightful but it also serves as a nice thumb reference for selective reading.
I haven’t re-read much of my journal from the time period I selected. I grabbed one of my books and just recorded by hand the 168 entries made across 15 month time period. It spans many travel and relational moments in my life. Accomplishments and loss. Spiritual thoughts and nightmares while asleep.
As I analyze the data collected I will be looking for the following:
- Can the data that I’ve collected through one journal provide me with deeper personal insight into who I am?
- What have my mood fluctuations been?
- Can large fluctuations be predicted?