So this is more like one of those quizzes that you’d find in a magazine than an actual personality test… consider it a prototype.
Tally up how many times you answer A, B, C, and D. Go with your first instinct. I look forward to permanently categorizing you based on 10 loosely related questions!
1. Can I help you load the dishwasher?
A) No.
B) Yes, but I will rearrange it before I start it.
C) Sure!
D) You’ll have to help me unload it first.
2. You arrive at an exercise class at the gym. Everyone reserves a spot online beforehand. Someone is in your spot. What do you do?
A) Tell him that he’s in my spot and ask him to move.
B) Approach diagonally, saying “Sorrysorrysorrysorry,” and place my waterbottle in front of him.
C) Find an open spot.
D) We were supposed to make reservations?
3. It’s your daughter’s birthday this weekend. What’s on your mind?
A) Should we do the cake smash at 10:45 am or 11:15 am?
B) Should we invite the neighbors from two doors down?
C) I should buy her a present.
D) Which daughter?
4. What are you wearing tomorrow?
A) The outfit that’s folded on the chair by my bed.
B) A ¾ sleeve because the forecast said rain.
C) I’ll try a few things on in the morning and see what works.
D) Clothes.
5. Where are the family pictures?
A) In organized files on the hard drive.
B) In the scrapbooks on the bottom shelves of the bookshelf.
C) The prints are in a Rubbermaid in the basement closet.
D) I have taken some of those before.
6. What’s for dinner?
A) Let me check the spreadsheet.
B) The weekly meal plan says Tuscan chicken…
C) But I’d rather have beef and broccoli, and we have most of the ingredients.
D) Popcorn.
7. Your brother is in town on short notice. You had plans to see a friend tonight. What happens next?
A) I tell him that we can meet at coffee shop before he leaves in the morning.
B) I spend a long time composing apologetic texts to both of them.
C) I tell my friend what happened and say we’ll hang out some other time.
D) I bring my brother to my friend’s house.
8. Your life motto is…
A) I Stick with the System
B) I’m Doing My Best
C) I’ll Make It Work
D) YOLO
9. That’s an amazing idea. Let’s do that…
A) In 2023. June is relatively open for me.
B) Next month. We are free on Thursday mornings.
C) Today.
D) Yeah!
10. What’s the plan?
A) The one-year plan, the five-year plan, or the ten-year plan?
B) Next month is full of great plans!
C) I think it’s best to not plan everything out too much.
D) You keep using this word… what do you mean by “plan”?
Now, find yourself somewhere in the quadrants below. If you answered mostly “B,” you’re a “B.” If you have two categories (or more) that have equal answer amounts, clearly I need to do more groundwork. For now, refer to the labels on the horizontal and vertical axes to place yourself in the in the right quadrant.
Refer to the following bullet points to find out more about your HHMYHCP (Hinds How Much You Hate Changing Plans) Inventory type! I was going to have each type be an animal, but then I remembered that I know nothing about animals. So each type is a different part of speech.
A) PRONOUN. Short and direct, pronouns know what they want and how to get it. It takes tremendous energy for a pronoun to change plans, so they make an airtight plan in the first place. They are not strongly persuaded by social pressure.
B) NOUN. Nouns also dislike changing plans, but they want to be accommodating to other people. It takes a lot of energy for a noun to change their plan, but their desire to please other people can usually get them to expend this energy. They try to be flexible, but, just like a noun getting used as a verb in a sentence, it’s awkward.
C) VERB. Blessed with the ability to conjugate and change tense, verbs like to optimize up until the moment of plan execution. It’s a huge mental drain for a verb to be in a situation where the plan cannot be changed. Just because a verb made a plan doesn’t mean it needs to materialize exactly like it looked on paper. What’s the fun in that?
D) INTERJECTION. Interjections are a relatively rare part of speech that can show up anywhere and anytime. They don’t need a plan because – WOAH! What was that? – they don’t have to follow any of the rules. They use gigantic bursts of energy to make several conflicting plans work and then disappear. They always manage to turn up again when they’re needed.
I am a diehard noun. Quadrant B is my home sweet home. I would rather do the original plan even if it has become a bad plan. If I am presented with more options, especially at late stages in the game, I have to resist the urge to cry. I have always been confused by last minute changes (why would anyone want to do that to themselves??). But recently, I realized that while energy expenditure and plan making are totally related, different people experience the connection differently. The world is made up of plan-savvy pronouns, crowd-conscious nouns, option-oriented verbs, and free-spirited interjections.
Feel free to comment or to inbox me your results (and how little they actually align with who you are).
Thanks for taking the inventory, you wonderful parts of speech! If you’ve always been confused by the plan-making (or lack thereof) motives of your friends and loved ones, you could always find out what quadrant they inhabit….
That was fun! Very creative idea! It turns out I'm a Verb! 😂 I make all kinds of plans, but they seem to get circumvented at every turn some days! Therefore, I've had to learn to go with the flow and realize that my plans aren't as important as what God allows to happen each day! In the end there is always something good that ends up being accomplished or learned, if I can choose to be grateful and thankful for everything that happens, even the hard things! It makes it easier to do this when I remember how much God loves us and cares for our every need! A priest that I've gone to Confession with often says, "Be happy! Be happy! Be happy! The way to do this is to live in the awareness of how much God loves you!"
I’m a verb, but had a few noun responses as well. This is a fun aspect of personality to think about!!