Can an ENFP Become an INFP (and Vice Versa)?

The online personality testing programs don’t ask questions very intelligently.

I just had a DM on Instagram, one like a hundred other messages I have received over the years, which is:

I’m an ENFP.

I’ve been going through a really tough time right now and now I scored as the INFP personality type on the MBTI test.

I don’t want to be an INFP. I like being an ENFP!

Can I become an ENFP again?

Or similarly:

Hey, Dan, I’m an ENFP.

I’ve always scored that way. but recently I’ve been really improving a lot and I’ve just scored as an INTJ.

And I don’t know if I want to change, but it’s kind of good.

Do you know what’s happening?

Is It Possible to Change Your MBTI Personality Type?

Let’s just get that out of the way:

Your MBTI personality type is not changing.

The online personality testing programs are pretty much crap. The way they ask questions is not very intelligently.

They do not take into account the entire expanse of human possibilities.

You can be an ENFP who goes through a phase where you don’t really like going out that much.

I’m an extrovert. I like people.

The last six months, aside from the fact that we haven’t been allowed to necessarily leave that often due to the coronavirus epidemic, I’ve been enjoying being at home here and getting a lot of really important things done.

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But that does not mean I am suddenly an INFP!

Is it possible for your MBTI type to change over time? Can people move from one MBTI to another over time and experience?

Now, I’m leaving open the possibility that this can happen because, you know, our brains can change and extreme events can really change things, but you’re not that special snowflake that did change.

We’re just going to say that your MBTI personality type is set.

The online personality testing again is not very good.

Things can change that affect how you take the test.

For example, if you’ve been following a lot of videos about discipline and how important it is to be disciplined and that you should always be on time, probably for a month or so while you’re watching those videos, you’re going to always be on time because it’s become extremely important for you.

So you’ve put in a lot of effort to change your behavior.

Then when you take the personality test, you’ll be like:

Yeah, I’m always on time. Yeah, I’m always disciplined. I’m always organized.

No, you’re not.

You’ve just been for the last couple of weeks and that’s not really who you are naturally, which is what the point of your personality is – how you naturally function.

It doesn’t mean we can’t function in other ways.

I’m an ENFP and I’ve never once missed a coaching call with a client or been probably more than five minutes late.

That doesn’t mean I’m any less of an ENFP.

That means I know how to prioritize and create systems or little tools I can use to make sure I do the important things in life and behave the way I want to behave.

Can You Be Two MBTI Types?!

The other thing that happens sometimes when people take online personality tests is they idealize their almost opposite personality type.

I talked to an INTJ once who was convinced that they had become an ENFP. They weren’t testing always as an INTJ and then now they were an ENFP.

There were some things going on with their psyche, it was pretty clear, and that they had basically idealized being fun-loving, being more open, being extroverted, and then had been through some personal development work and had basically projected this onto their testing where they were like:

No, I’ve changed completely who I am.

And that’s probably not the case, I’m very confident to say.

So don’t worry, if you’ve suddenly got a test back and you thought:

Wait, no, Dan, you convinced me being an ENFP was so awesome.

I got that ENFP pep talk and was so excited to be an ENFP!

And you took the MBTI test now and you thought it’s changed, it is terrible!

The odds are your MBTI personality type hasn’t changed.

Now, there’s a possibility that you were another type the whole time and you mis-tested as an ENFP because – hey, we are so awesome.

The odds are that the type that you have tested as for most of your life and that you’ve really figured out that this is who you are- that hasn’t changed just because you’ve been going through a really good time or bad time or made some personal changes that have changed your behavior.

But that hasn’t changed your fundamental personality traits.

Don’t let me repeat screaming:

Your MBTI Type Does Not Chaaange!