24 Signs That You’re an ESTP, the “Daredevil” Personality Type

Ever feel like there’s a shortage of ESTP-related content on the internet? When it comes to personality, most of the content is written by intuitives and therefore geared towards intuitive types. Today we’re going to break the mold and look at one of the most exciting types in the Myers-Briggs® system. The ESTP. The Daredevil. These types are filled with a thirst for adventure and a hunger for novelty and action. Let’s take a look at 24 things that you’ll relate to if you’re an ESTP type!

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24 Signs That You’re an ESTP

1. You’re the Ultimate Realist

Neither an optimist or a pessimist, you prefer to see life as it really is. Facing facts, staying objective, and keeping a steady head is something you pride yourself on. You prefer to focus on the reality of what’s in front of you rather than veering off into fantasy hypothetical situations.

2. You Get Serious FOMO

Sitting around and making small talk, listening to lectures, or grinding your way through paperwork is infuriating to you on many occasions. You have a restless need to be experiencing the world and all it has to offer. You want to DO things, not just talk about things. Every moment you spend sedentary feels like a waste to you.

3. You Know All the Best Restaurants in Town

You’re a connoisseur of all the finer things in life, and get a thrill from trying out new cuisines and hole-in-the-wall restaurants that might surprise you with their delectable, new tastes. People come to you when they need to know all the best eateries around.

4. You Can Sense People’s Motivations

You are hypersensitive to even the most minimal nonverbal cues. You may not be an intuitive in the Myers-Briggs® system, but you have a strong physical intuition nonetheless. You have a gift for interpreting nonverbal cues and sensing what someone is thinking or feeling. This makes you an excellent salesperson in many situations.

5. You Live in the Now

Rather than hypothesizing about the future or daydreaming about the past, you’re someone who has mastered living in the present. You want to take whatever life hands you today rather than wait for something that may or may not come tomorrow. This attunement to the moment helps you to be resourceful, opportunistic, and present.

6. You Love Giving Gifts

When you care about someone, there’s nothing you enjoy more than surprising them with a thrilling experience. An impulsive trip to the Caribbean, a last-minute pair of concert tickets, or a shimmering piece of jewelry that goes perfectly with a partner’s eyes.

7. Seeing is Believing to You

It’s hard for you to trust theories and belief systems without having verifiable proof. Anyone who tries to dupe you by emotionally manipulating you or using hunches and superstition will be severely disappointed.

8. You Believe That Actions Speak Louder Than Words

You know how easy it is to charm people and tell them what they want to hear. Because of your natural skill in reading people, you may find it easy to give compliments or make people feel the way you want them to feel. But at the end of the day, actions are how you prefer to show your love. You like helping people out in practical, concrete ways to show them that they matter to you.

9. You Have an Incredibly Accurate Visual Memory

You experience the world around you in high-definition detail. You are one of the most observant of all the Myers-Briggs® personality types. Because of this, you can remember things with a depth of accuracy that many other types can only dream of.

10. You Have Few Illusions About People

You accept people for who they truly are, and don’t shy away from things that might make other types squirm. You’re the friend who will hold someone’s hair back when they are vomiting or see through the airs of pretension that so many other people hide behind. Underneath your sometimes intimidating, no-nonsense demeanor, you have a great deal of tolerance for people. You just want them to be real with you.

11. Fairness is One of Your Core Values

Nothing turns you off more than preferential treatment or unfair advantages. You believe in giving everyone a chance and dislike hierarchies or people who pull rank through no merit of their own doing.

12. You Often Play the Devil’s Advocate

You see the nuanced logic of many different perspectives and despise generalizations and faulty reasoning. You have no problem holding your own in a debate and pointing out the logical fallacies of your opponent.

13. You Crave Independence and Freedom

You have a restless desire to venture out into the world and face exciting new challenges and discoveries. Like Theodore Roosevelt, a real-life ESTP, you want to “Face life with a high and resolute courage…Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

14. You’re an Inner Control Freak

While on the outside you might seem easy-going and up for anything, on the inside you have to run all your decisions through a carefully organized set of logical tests. When you think about something, you see all the data through a series of filters; each filter refining the information further and further until you can understand the best path forward.

15. You’re Tenacious

While you appear adaptable and easy-going, you’re also very persevering. If you really believe in something, you’ll go down with the ship, fighting to acknowledge its truth. This can show up in debates, or in life choices that may have seemed too “risky” for the people you know. Speaking of which…

16. You Enjoy an Element of Risk

You know that to achieve great things there will always be an element of risk. You believe in conquering your fears, competing, and taking the road that could lead to happiness over the road that leads merely to safety.

17. When You’re Extremely Stressed You Get Paranoid

During normal, day-to-day life, you’re someone who prefers to stay level-headed and calm. But when stress has been ongoing or severe, you suddenly find yourself misinterpreting things or inferring meaning into random occurrences. Your wife gets home late and you just know she’s having an affair. You see a dark cloud forming over your house and you think God is going to punish you for past sins. Typologists call this phenomena being “in the grip” of the inferior function. Because in your normal life you’re a practical realist, when chronic stress overloads your mind and burns you out, you can suddenly get lost in your often underused Intuition. During these times, the Intuition manifests as a gloomy harbinger of doom over everything that’s happening in your life. You can find out more about this here.

18. You Hate Feeling Pinned Down By Commitments

You’d rather make plans at the spur of the moment then prepare for something far ahead of time. What if you don’t feel like going to that particular restaurant in a week? What if you aren’t feeling like pursuing that career path in five years? What if you get married and things go terribly wrong? You prefer to take a wait-and-see approach to life so that you don’t wind up regretting your decisions.

19. Your Past Can Dismantle You

You try not to get too bogged down in past mistakes, but during moments of turmoil or stress you can often feel bogged down by past mistakes or people who once hurt you long ago. You may feel that you’re never going to accomplish what you want or achieve the things you desire because of things that happened a very long time ago. It can be difficult for you to imagine that your life will change its course after experiencing several disappointments in a row.

20. You Crave Variety

You’re an excellent multi-tasker and you’re good at switching between tasks and juggling several different projects at the same time. In fact, you prefer a life where you get to experiment with many different projects and activities at once. Working on one thing at a time tends to be de-motivating to you.

21. You Use Humor to Deflate Tense Situations

When everyone around you is feeling overwhelmed or flustered, you often have the perfectly timed joke to release some of the tension. Your cool, charming nature often comes in handy during chaotic situations. You use humor as a way of comforting others and finding solidarity with them.

22. You Excel in the Art of Tactics

You can come up with swift, tactical plans during nearly any crisis scenario. Executing and influencing others to execute comes easily to you. Because of this, you can get a lot done in a very short amount of time. Your commanding yet friendly presence helps you to get people on board without feeling “bossed around.”

23. You Believe That You Can Manage Whatever Happens

Unless you’re severely stressed, you tend to believe that you can roll with the punches of life. You’d rather take a risk and go ahead and make something happen then spend a lot of time fretting over details. You believe in your ability to resourcefully handle any challenge that comes your way. While you may hate planning ahead, you also enjoy acting spontaneously when a good opportunity presents itself.

24. You Strive to be Confident and Composed

Nothing damages your ego more than appearing meek or awkward. You tend to have a natural charm, gregariousness, and energy that makes you seem fearless. Many people find your inner drive and competence inspiring.

Other Articles About ESTPs:

The Flirting Style of the ESTP Personality Type

The Shadow of the ESTP Personality Type

The Top 7 Gift Ideas for ESTPs

What Are Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this article? How many of these points did you relate to? Let us know in the comments! Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer. You can also connect with me via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!