Motivation & Myers-Briggs Personality Type
How Does Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type Affect Your Level of Motivation? (And What to do About It)
by Raeann McCarty | 20 January 2021
Overview of Myers-Briggs

Different things motivate different people. While relationships may motivate one person more than anything else, another person may be driven by truth, external affirmations, tangible results, or any one or more other internal and external motivators.
Everyone has a personality type that informs their decisions and basically shapes how they do things. Most importantly, though, is that for every personality type there are key principles that help each type understand their own unique self-motivation traps and tools, and no one personality type is any better than any other.
Everyone has a personality type that informs their decisions and basically shapes how they do things. Most importantly, though, is that for every personality type there are key principles that help each type understand their own unique self-motivation traps and tools, and no one personality type is any better than any other.

After working with many, many types of clients over the years, we realized that personality type plays a role in their health journey and workouts, and that we, as Certified Professional Trainers, could better help our clients achieve their fitness goals if they—and us—understood their basic personality type and what motivated, and what discouraged, each of them.
Our goal at McCartyFit is to help YOU build a more fit and healthy YOU
and our unique style of Friendly Fitness Help is how we do it!
and our unique style of Friendly Fitness Help is how we do it!

To get valuable insights into your motivating factors and to make positive, consistent changes in all areas of your life, including health and fitness, we’ve found it's helpful to understand one of the oldest and most widely used personality classification systems - The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator.

The indicator derives its name from the developers - Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs (daughter and mother) - and has its foundations in the work of Swiss psychiatrist & psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Myers and Briggs were intrigued by Jung's theory of personality types and proposed to find real-world applications, marking the birth of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)--an inventory that determines a person's personality type based on answers to certain questions.
According to the MBTI, each of us are one of sixteen personality types which is determined based on our likes, dislikes, “weaknesses”, “strengths”, career preference, and social compatibility. However, no individual personality is better than the other (we’re going to stress this again and again).
The aim of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is to give people more insights about themselves, as opposed to looking for dysfunctions, with the basic premise that if we know our tendencies, our inherent “strengths and weaknesses” then we can better navigate the world and achieve more positive results for ourselves, and those we interact with.
According to the MBTI, each of us are one of sixteen personality types which is determined based on our likes, dislikes, “weaknesses”, “strengths”, career preference, and social compatibility. However, no individual personality is better than the other (we’re going to stress this again and again).
The aim of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is to give people more insights about themselves, as opposed to looking for dysfunctions, with the basic premise that if we know our tendencies, our inherent “strengths and weaknesses” then we can better navigate the world and achieve more positive results for ourselves, and those we interact with.
Myers-Briggs Personality Type Scales
Extroversion (E) - Introversion (I)

This scale is derived from well-known terms (extrovert and introvert). While some people may have hints of both (and we all do, situation dependent), we are either primarily extroverted or introverted. It’s all about how we get our energy. Extroverts tend to be energized by social interactions while introverts prefer spending a majority of their time alone or with select individuals.
As an interesting aside, it’s been reported that Jung preferred to use an “A” instead of an “O” when spelling “Extravert” and “Extraversion”, but the use of “O” is fairly common in modern use.
Sensing (S) - Intuition (N)
This scale is about how we gather information. Some people are intuitive while others sense situations. Like extraversion and introversion, people tend to either use sensing or intuition more predominantly.
If you gather information through sensing, then you are bound to pay attention to reality and the facts and details that come with it. If you gather information through intuition, you tend to focus more on patterns and impressions, possibilities, imagination, and abstract theories.
If you gather information through sensing, then you are bound to pay attention to reality and the facts and details that come with it. If you gather information through intuition, you tend to focus more on patterns and impressions, possibilities, imagination, and abstract theories.
Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)
This scale is based on information gathered through sensing or intuition. If you prefer thinking, you focus more on facts and logic when making decisions. If you prefer feeling, you focus on emotion and people when making decisions.
Judging (J) - Perceiving (P)
The fourth and final scale is about how you deal with the world. If you love firm decisions and structure, you lean towards judging. Those who lean towards perceiving are more flexible, open, and adaptable.
The four scales above result in 16 personality types with unique qualities. Here's how each personality type affects your level of motivation and what you can do about it in regards to your health and fitness journey.
The four scales above result in 16 personality types with unique qualities. Here's how each personality type affects your level of motivation and what you can do about it in regards to your health and fitness journey.