Tickle's Original Inkblot Test
You’re a Reserve!
Tickle’s Original Inkblot Test
Brought to you by Tickle
This one I love. Its always great.
Reserve
By having your unconscious mind driven most by Reserve, it appears that you like to keep your internal life private. So while some people might wish for the bright lights and paparazzi of celebrity, that’s probably not your thing. In fact, you might be a bit more wary than most people are about others “getting into your business.” Perhaps you grew up thinking that personal matters should be kept to yourself or that being reserved is a virtue. Regardless of the reason, people with a heightened drive for resistance are typically not very communicative. If this is true for you, the people in your life may never even realize when you’re having an off day — and perhaps you like it that way.
However, if you tend to keep people at arm’s length, you may sometimes appear secretive or standoffish to those who don’t know you well. In some cases, a lack of communication with others may even put you out of touch with your own ideas and feelings. If you find that resistance is affecting your life in negative ways, you may want to more closely examine the situations that tend to spark it. Once you have a handle on the things that make you defensive, you can take an active role in opening yourself up to people and new situations. When you do, you’ll likely find that the benefits of sharing more of yourself far outweigh the risks.
Your inkblot report Unlocking your unconscious Responses to Tickle’s inkblot test History behind the test For More Reading
Unlocking your unconscious
Your responses to the inkblots reveal more than just what drives your unconscious mind. They also uncover some central details about your personality, perspective, and relationships with others. Your unconscious mind colors these characteristics but is different from them. Here’s what your responses indicated:
Your concept of reality
Your concept of reality is highly similar to that of others but not an exact match. Your perceptions seem to fall in between those who create their own unique realities and those who possess more mainstream perspectives. Because you straddle that middle ground of being in agreement with others and having your own opinions of the world, you can be both a follower and a leader. You can be a follower in the sense that you probably don’t have trouble going along with the group most times since others’ ideas will usually seem rational to you. You can be a leader because your creative viewpoints may sometimes allow you to guide others in new directions.
The difficulty for people like you is that at times you may feel pulled between taking the popular viewpoint and accepting your own vision of what is right. Because your concept of reality is rarely off the deep end, you can generally feel confident that there’s something valid in your perspectives. Even if others don’t always share your views, try not to let the masses talk you out of them. There can sometimes be great value in forging your own path. Finding a healthy balance between others’ ideas and your own can be key to both your relationships and success.
Take Action
Gaining confidence in the validity of your perceptions can be very valuable for types like you. When you find yourself doubting an opinion that is uniquely yours, try taking a step back to ask yourself where your uncertainty is coming from. Is it because you truly suspect that you’re wrong, because others believe you are wrong, or because you’re not clear on what your opinion really is? By honestly reflecting on your views, you can develop stronger convictions and feel less susceptible to others’ sway.
Rather than trying to determine whether you can trust your perceptions on a case-by-case basis, over time you’ll be able to develop gut instincts about the quality of your views. Here’s an exercise to help you test not only what you think, but also how strongly you believe in your perceptions.
Think back to the last time you went to the grocery store. Then, take out a piece of paper and a pen and map out the layout of the grocery store as you remember it. Be as specific as possible, including details of where different food groups are located, how many aisles there are, the number of checkout lanes, and so forth. Mark those things that you are sure about with a star versus those you’re just pretty sure about.
Then, on your next trip to the store, take your drawing with you and grade yourself on how accurately you depicted it. Were there certain things you got right but others you were way off on? If so, don’t feel discouraged. Some people will get the number of aisles right but will misremember food locations. Others will know exactly where their favorite foods are but won’t remember anything else about the store. Doing exercises like this one can help you sort out the quality of your perceptions as well as bolster your belief in yourself.
Your mental flexibility
This section looks as the flexibility of your opinions, values, and perspective. To determine your result, Tickle’s experts examined both the fluidity of your thinking and the rigidity of your opinions.
Based on your responses, compared to most people, your thinking is highly flexible. When someone challenges your values or opinions, you’re one of those rare types who are usually willing to sit back and listen. People like you tend to enjoy this kind of intellectual sparring and may even welcome the opportunity to examine and reexamine your views. Those around you probably appreciate this willingness to consider others’ ideas, rather than always thinking your perspective is the right one and trying to convince everyone else of the same. Being open to fresh viewpoints is an admirable quality.
In addition, flexibility can be paramount to fast learning. This is true because unless you’re able to question what you already believe, it’s difficult to believe in something new. By being open-minded, you’re more likely to make your life into a kind of schoolroom for constant learning. People who don’t have this skill can become stuck in the rut of their viewpoints and may fail to grow and develop as well as you can.
Take Action
There are pros and cons to any way of being. The drawback to being flexible is that you may become so changeable that you end up either appearing very fickle to others or getting confused about what you really think. In some situations it’s important to have a strong foothold on your own perspective so that you aren’t completely swept away by a convincing argument or new possibility. If you notice that you’ve made a radical shift in your thinking or values, you may want to take a step back and examine the causes.
Ask yourself: Are your old and new perspectives more similar than they first appeared? Did you ever feel strongly about your old view? Or, does this new idea simply make more sense based on the evidence and your experience? In asking this last question, the part about measuring things against your own experience is extremely important. Remember that people can make an argument for almost any viewpoint. That doesn’t make it true. Try to use your instincts and past to help you determine if there are aspects of your old perspective that you might have abandoned too quickly. After all, there was probably something of value in your old view — otherwise you probably wouldn’t have had it.
You Level of Fantasy
Some people fantasize nearly nonstop, others rarely do, and the majority of people fall somewhere in between. Imagination and the ability to create alternate realities are the two factors that determine whether or not a person is capable of having a highly colorful fantasy life. However, not everyone who can fantasize does. For example, if two strangers who were both capable of fantasizing were sitting next to one another on a bus, one might still spend the whole ride thinking about paying their bills and formulating their next to-do list, while the other could be envisioning taking a siesta on a tropical island. For Tickle’s Inblot Test, having a high level of fantasy involves both having the mental tools necessary to fantasize and putting them to use.
Being prone to fantasy can be thought of as a spectacular gift. Fantasy can give one the ability to create a made-up world much more captivating and pleasurable than the usual day-to-day realities. This can be a wonderful asset as you go though life – a free form of entertainment that you can use any time.
Some people look at those who are fantasy prone in a derogatory way. They feel that the more realistically a person thinks, the saner they are. Indeed, most definitions of “abnormal” refer to what is “unusual” or “not frequent”. Clinical experts sometimes look at fantasy as a means of trying to escape reality, rather that face what’s there.
Regardless of how one feels about fantasy, its value is heavily dependent on how it’s used. If you use fantasy to visualize improvements in your life without ignoring important realities, then fantasy can be a useful talent. It can help you maintain your optimism and even to devise novel solutions to your problems. However, if fantasy is something you retreat into as a way of denying reality, then you might want to reconsider your use of it.
Tickle’s experts found that you are certainly capable of fantasizing and may even enjoy keeping yourself entertained that way. However, based on your responses, your first reaction to stress probably isn’t to create an alternate universe or to imagine things differently than they actually are. In fact, you appear to have the nice balance of having the gift of fantasy at your disposal without having the tendency to overly rely on it. In other words, when it comes to fantasy, you typically use it, but don’t abuse it.
Fantasy is a technique frequently employed by people living under harsh conditions in order to ease their stress. In this way, imagination can be a vital tool for prison inmates who live in depressing, restrictive conditions day in and day out. Using the power of fantasy can also be a profound relief for people living in poverty and in war zones. In fact, there are many people who live in adverse situations or deal with other painful circumstances that could benefit from occasional relief through fantasy.
Fantasy only becomes a problem when you ignore something you need to deal with because you have the ability to fantasize it away. For example, imagine you have a problem with an aunt of yours. Perhaps this aunt says something that upsets you almost every time you talk with her. As a result, after a while you stop listening to her in favor of pretending that you’re someplace else entirely. The fantasy you create for yourself might be more exciting – and far less annoying, but it doesn’t change this detrimental pattern between you and your aunt. A better response might be to put your fantasies aside for a while to address your aunt’s poor communication style head-on.
At it’s worst, fantasy can keep you from making important lifestyle choices. For instance, if you fantasize that you have boundless energy and are a wonderful athlete, and in the meantime sit on your couch eating potato chips and playing video games, there will eventually come a time where you won’t be able to deny what is really happening to your body and you will have to tend to the reality of your deteriorating health. However, there’s no reason that you have to let fantasy affect you in these negative ways. So long as you pay attention to the aspects of your life that need addressing, like your health or your career, you should be able to use fantasy and creative visualizations to bolster your happiness and success, not impede them.
How you relate to others
Your relationships are complex things. One important aspect affecting all of them is the role that you play when interacting with others. Do you typically take an active approach when dealing with the people around you, or do you tend to behave more passively? According to your test responses, you appear to have a more passive approach to interacting with others. As a result, you likely prefer to be in an environment where others are the movers and shakers. That way the responsibility doesn’t fall on you to make things happen or keep everyone happy. It’s not that you can’t take action in your own life to get what you want. It’s simply that when it comes to interacting, you’d usually rather that other people took the lead.
The positive side to this trait is that it leaves you plenty of time to observe what’s happening around you. People like you tend to be “watchers,” checking out the scene to better understand people’s personalities and deeper motivations. In this way, rather than making the first move, you can make the informed move. Over time, you may even become known for your canny observations and tendency to be a good judge of character. Being observant can also be helpful to your overall development as it can aid you in realizing the kinds of people and relationships that serve you best.
Believe it or not, one complication that can arise for people who have passive styles is interacting with other people who are passive. If neither individual is willing to take the initiative, their relationship may either become paralyzed or even fail to materialize in the first place. If you find yourself in a situation like this one, challenge yourself to make some social leaps. You might be surprised to find that sometimes you can enjoy taking the lead.
