In the Mind of an INFJ (Myers Briggs Personalities)

Oh hey nice to meet you, I’m an INFJ.

Not a clue what I’m talking about?

You need to look into the Myers Briggs personality type indicator. Essentially, it’s a personality test – but a really important, well known and well respected one. 

I grew up in a household where Myers Briggs ‘types’ were the topic of daily conversation, and throughout my education in business and marketing it has come up time and time again. There are several reasons why it’s important to know about it:

• Understand why you have those habits
• Understand how you work best 
• Understand what makes you tick and what turns you off
• Understand your relationships more deeply
• Understand how to be more efficient at work
• Understand others and how to deal with polar opposite personalities

There are loads of sites online where you can take long or short versions of the test for free, so have a look around.

ANYWAY, I won’t linger too long on the structure and combination of the types, but below is a helpful guide to my type – INFJ:

Introverted – Gains energy through quiet time and being alone, loses energy in social situations (Opposite is an ‘Extravert’ who gains energy when socialising)

Intuitive – Sees patterns and possibilities and makes decisions based on an abstract intuition (Opposite is a ‘Sensing’ person, who is more logical and practical, making decisions using concrete evidence)

Feeling – Prioritise people and emotions (Opposite is a ‘Thinking’ person, again making logical decisions through analysis and rationality)

Judging – Prefers structure, order and routine, and likes to plan before acting (Opposite is a ‘Perceiving’ person, tends to be more spontaneous, flexible, and possibly disorganised)

So now that you have a little background understanding – here’s some more about what it’s like to be me!

The Not so Good:

1. Working in groups is just the worst
   Being introverted means I lose energy by being in social situations. It exhausts me after a short while and I just want to go somewhere by myself to recharge. Trying to do work in social situations is therefore particularly hard, and I know a lot of Introverts struggle with it. I personally need silence to work, and simply can’t concentrate if anyone else is talking or even playing music, and I also find it hard to share ideas freely for fear of being judged by others. On the whole, not a great way to get stuff done.
2. I may make decisions based on emotions sometimes
   It’s easy for me to get swept up in the emotion of something and make decision based on my (very active!) imagination. I’m lucky that my partner, N, is a more rational personality, so he brings me down to Earth when I need it!
3. I want people to like me…so much!
   Being sensitive to the emotions and feelings of others means it can feel extremely uncomfortable when I know someone doesn’t particularly like me. Therefore I’ll do everything I can to make people like me, which isn’t always a good thing. I’m definitely at risk of being a pushover due to that – I’m getting better though, and slowly learning to care less what others think of me.
4. Did I mention I’m kind of emotional?
   Watching sad films, TV shows or adverts, hearing sad stories or seeing someone get hurt or upset just turns me into an emotional mess. There is such a thing as too much empathy, and sometimes I hate having all the feels.
5. I feel like s**t if my routine is messed up
   I have lists of lists of to do lists (yes, list inception is a real thing), and sometimes I actually write out a plan of my day. As in, ‘at 9am I will do this’ and ‘at 11am I will do this’. This means if something comes up or I need to be more flexible, it can make me feel a little stressed…if only because it ruins the neatness of my to do list.
6. Networking is also the worst
   Similarly to working in groups, talking to strange people with the purpose to gain something from them is hideously awkward for me. I could NEVER work in sales – ever.

The Positive:

1. My time and project management skills are fairly epic
   Did I mention my lists of to do lists? I’m obsessive about time management, productivity and efficiency, and I will always maintain that this is my biggest strength.
2. Making decisions based on intuition isn’t a bad thing
   As far as my experience goes, I’ve found that intuitive decision making nearly always works out best. The ability to intuitively find patterns and extrapolate from them has thus far been very useful. #BelieveinyourBiology
3. I’m very well-suited to Marketing due to empathy
   When I quit uni and started searching for a new career path, I looked very deeply into Myers Briggs for suggestions and ideas. Being a counsellor always comes out top for INFJs, but one of the top choices is also a ‘Marketer’. Thus, I have become one, and have found it to be very successful so far!
4. I’m great at working on my own
   I could honestly be a hermit quite easily, and my extreme Introverted-ness means I suit remote working very well, if not better than an office/group environment.
5. Creativity comes naturally
   INFJs are known for being creative – particularly with their writing communication skills. Hence why I’m positive that many bloggers are INFJs/INTJs also!
6. My friendships are deep and important
   Apparently INFJs find it easy to make friends but hard to keep them, and therefore usually have a small handful of really close friends. This is definitely true for me. I deliberately seek out people with very similar personalities to my own because I know I will find it easier to build more meaningful relationships with them. In the past I’ve found I’m not very compatible with Extraverts at all, mainly because of their tendency to have large amounts of shallower friendships instead.

 

I would love for everyone I know to write something like this and share it, because I honestly find it so interesting to know what’s going on inside other peoples’ heads, and I love seeing how different we all are.

 

What’s your Myers Briggs type?