Dubai life coach Shereen Mitwalli has created an all-encompassing personality test

G et to know yourself. This is the advice that certified life coach and motivational speaker Shereen Mitwalli cannot stress enough. Figure out who you are and what makes you tick. At a time when we care far more about how everyone else appears on their social media, it's crucial that we stop and ask ourselves what we care about, who we are, what we like and what we dislike – if only to figure out what we're good at. Because, as Mitwalli puts it: "The more we know about ourselves, the more we can act on it." A n Egyptian-Australian presenter and motivational speaker, Mitwalli is also a certified life and communication coach. The bilingual presenter has interviewed celebrities such as Richard Branson and Gigi Hadid. She conducts bi-monthly masterclasses, which she personally developed, and will soon launch an online mentoring programme that's available to anyone with an internet connection. But first, Mitwalli has developed and launched a personality career test that she insists is an "eye-opener" for anyone who takes it. As a mentor and coach for VIPs and royal-family members across the region, she felt she needed a tool that would help her get to know the person she was coaching in a relatively short period of time. “Let’s say I have two hours to provide my clients with the most value. I used to get them to do some tests beforehand to learn a bit more about their personalities, but none of the tests were good enough. There’s a test for personality, a test for careers, a test for profiling – nothing that combines everything, so a person can learn about themselves from all these angles. I thought: ‘We need to create our own.’” With the help of a team of educators, doctorate-holders and certified coaches from across the region, and with her own input, Mitwalli created an online assessment tool that takes no more than 10 minutes to complete, and which she describes as a game-changer. “It’s quick and easy, really efficient, there’s no more than 30 questions, and it will spit out a report – the kind of report I needed to assess the person I’m dealing with and the kind of report that a person would use to learn more about themselves.” ____________________ Read more: ____________________ She is a strong believer in the importance of doing whatever is necessary to understand one's self and "assess who you are at your core". “It started off as a tool to help me during my coaching sessions with VIPs, but why not have everyone benefit from this test? It can show people that they don’t have to fit themselves into any predetermined box any more; they can understand their unique personality, understand what they like to do, what they’re good at, and accept it.” These type of tests are not revolutionary – there are many free online tests to help you find your profession by analysing skills, personality type and then making assumptions about what profession would suit you best. But what Mitwalli's test can boast, and what justifies its $49 (Dh180) price tag, is that it doesn't focus on career alone, and is able to describe personality traits, understand what type of communicator the person is, and also give advice on what careers and professions should be avoided. "I got everyone I knew to take the test, as well as myself," says Mitwalli. "I wanted to make sure it works. The test, honestly, for me reconfirmed everything I knew about myself. The biggest advantage you can have in life is to understand yourself." Once you do that , says Mitwalli, you can "live your life instead of putting yourself in that box and being like everyone else. You are your own person and you end up respecting and admiring who you are." Whether it’s someone considering a career change, a couple interested in going into business together and struggling to understand one another, or just someone curious about what makes them tick, the test is for everyone, Mitwalli insists. “This test is even for students, basically for anyone who is looking for direction and wanting to know a little bit more about themselves, especially students who have to decide at age 18 what course [to take up] or which direction they will go in life; that’s the time they need to know what they are good at and what they should explore based on that.” Young people in particular can benefit from it, she says, because of the influence of social media. "Social media is telling the younger generation: we all have to be same, have to have the same look to be social-media-friendly, we all have to like the same stuff. No, I'm sorry, we're not all the same, we express and act differently, and will become happier differently, and if we know ourselves and who we are, it's the right step in taking a stance and doing what's best for us, and what fulfils us." Take the test at www.personalityandcareertest.com

Dubai life coach Shereen Mitwalli has created an all-encompassing personality test

The certified life coach and motivational speaker launched a personality and career test that she says is an eye-opener for everyone